Legacy of the Mist Demon
by Major of the Letztes Bataillon
Summary: Its been four years since Zabuza died. But when a series of murders starts up in the Land of Waves Kakashi, Naruto, Hinata and Tenten are sent to investigate only to discover they may be in over there heads. NarutoXHinata and TentenXOC InoXOC Rated M for violence Please leave Reviews
1. Chapter 1

Kakashi opened the door to the Hokage's office stepping in to see the stairs of four rather irritated looking shinobi.

"Kakashi Hatake" Greeted Tusnade flashing him a threatening grin. It wouldn't have seemed threatening to most people, to most people it would have seemed like a pleasant flash of teeth. But Kakashi knew how to see through deception.

"Sorry I'm late Lady Hokage I didn't have a clean mask to wear today so I had wash yesterdays before I could leave."

"Liar" growled Naruto his arms crossed over his chest. "Just admit it Kakashi Sensei you're terrible at keeping track of time maybe that mask of yours needs a watch."

Kakashi scratched the back of his head and smiled behind his mask he didn't think he could say anything to make the orange and black clad ninja believe him.

"Is he always this late to mission briefings?" asked Tenten with a smirk. The kunoichi had been sitting patiently in one of the chairs next to the Hyūga girl who had turned to quietly watch him and Naruto.

"You bet he is" said Naruto, "I bet you ten bowls of ramen he was busy reading one of his pervy books."

"That's enough Naruto" said Tusnade opening the file on her desk.

"We received a mission offer from the Land of Waves."

She explained pulling out a small stack of photographs handing them for people to pass around.

Kakashi browsed through the pictures one by one carefully looking over the scenes they depicted each picture depicted a vivid scene of carnage. Each victim's body seemed to have been killed in a variety of ways. A few of the bodies had purple faces with bile foaming from their mouths, while others had been burned disemboweled and decapitated, some pictures had piles of flesh sliced into ribbons.

As the pictures were passed around obvious signs of disgust turned everyone's faces. Hinata barely looked them over before immediately handing them over to Tenten who managed to stomach the gruesome scenes more than the Hyūga girl. Her brown eyes moved across the scenes taking everything in before handing them to Naruto who casually looked them over before handing them back to Tusnade.

"We've been asked to investigate these murders in the Land of Waves. It seems these murders have been popping up for the last six months as you can clearly see their far from usual whoever's been conducting these killings is clearly a skilled Shinobi. But that's not all… these killings have been causing… rumors to spring up."

"W-what kind of rumors?" asked Hinata clutching her hands to her chest.

Tusnade looked at her then over to Kakashi.

"They say… It's the Demon of the Mist."

Kakashi's eyes widened. "Zabuza!? Impossible I buried his body myself."

"Yeah I was there to help Kakashi bury that creep. He was about as dead as they come." Said Naruto his eyes wandering towards the stack of photographs on the desk.

"Do the victims have any similarities?" Asked Tenten.

"A few but very little, many of the murder victims were moderately wealthy and our sources say they were known criminals tied to local gangs."

"S-so what you're saying is this is some kind of vigilante?" asked Hinata.

Tusnade sighed. "That's what I thought at first but a few of those found dead had no apparent ties to any of the local gangs. A few of the bodies even belonged to retired individuals."

Naruto clenched his fist. "So why are we staying here we should get moving."

"Listen Naruto I want you four to travel to the Land of Waves and find out anything you can about these killings and whoever is behind them. And Naruto try not to start a fight until you have a scope of the situation."

Naruto gave her the thumbs up and grinned in response.

Kakashi looked over to the two the two girls on the newly formed team. He watched a thin smile form on Hinata's face obviously happy to be teamed up with Naruto. Tenten just nodded at Tusnade with a determined look in her eyes. He supposed it was good to have at least one focused person on this team. With all the various missions that were cropping up many of the teams where having to be split reformed and put together.

Sakura was currently accompanying Kiba and Shino in the Land of Stone, and Neji and Lee both were off on another in the Land of Wind.

Kakashi wasn't used to working with the two kunoichi his latest missions had all been solo with the occasional mission with Guy. Between the Hyūga's infatuation and reserved calm, and Naruto's obliviousness and bullheadedness he was sure he wouldn't be bored.

He looked over to Tenten and wondered how Guy's overlooked student would fare on this particular mission.

"That's all for now you four will leave tomorrow." Explained Tusnade.

"Kakashi please stay behind I wish to talk to you."

Kakashi watched as Naruto ran out eager to get ready for tommarow Hinata calmly shuffling into the hallway with Tenten.

Kakashi turned his gaze back to Tusnade as soon as he couldn't hear them talking in the hallways anymore.

"I suppose something is troubling you Hokage?" he asked looking down at the morbid pictures.

"Kakashi… are you absolutely sure Zabuza is dead?" she asked folding her hands and leaning on her desk.

"Well I suppose anything is possible… but I am as sure I can be that he isn't still alive. Like I said I buried his body next to Haku. It was quite a messy affair having to remove all those weapons from his back… but I wouldn't have felt right laying him to rest with them sticking out of him. Why would you think this is the work of ghosts? I didn't think you were the superstitious type Lady Hokage."

Tusnade looked outside to the stone faces of the Hokage. "I'm not the type to believe in ghosts… but I wasn't completely honest about a connection to the victims. Those retired men I mentioned… well they all used to work for the Gatō Company."

"What!?" that caught Kakashi's attention his mind raced back to the image of Zabuza plunging his lent kunai into the short chubby business man.

"That's right, after Gatō died his shipping company and criminal empire was in shambles despite the effort of the people of the Land of Waves they never completely managed to rid themselves of that scum. I think these criminals that ended up in body bags were a part of his criminal empire."

Kakashi folded his arms, "I'll keep this information at the forefront of my mind. It's possible Zabuza had more followers than we let on. But even if that's the case… these ninja are being strangely loyal to a criminal who's been dead for almost four years. And they have certainly waited quite a while for revenge."

"If your right Kakashi these shinobi pose a great threat… they could still be planning a coup in the Hidden Mist Village."

"Then let's just hope I'm wrong." He said opening the door to leave.

* * *

Tenten and Hinata sat in comfortable silence of their favorite tea house quietly enjoying their hot brew. In the four years since the Chūnin Exam they had become strong friends. Unlike many people Tenten respected Hinata's quiet disposition and having spent so much time around both Guy and Lee and having to deal with Neji's rather arrogant disposition it was refreshing to be with someone who was both quiet and modest. Though at times she wished she wouldn't be either but that was a work in progress.

Tenten thanked the waiter when their order of dumplings had arrived. She looked over the vacant faced girl in front of her and smiled noticing that her tea was getting cold. She smiled taking a bite of her dumplings.

"So… it will be interesting to be on a mission with Naruto wont it?" she asked pulling the girl out of her daydreaming. Hinata blushed; she had talked to Tenten about her feeling towards Naruto. She hadn't really spoken to anyone else with the exception of Kurenai but she had managed to figure out her feeling. Tenten was the only person she had actually confided in so far.

She smiled to herself. "Y-yes it will… I hope things go well for us. I hear Naruto's first real mission was in the Land of Waves… so it should be fun for him to return there."

Tenten flashed her friend a wicked grin. "Hinata… you know… if you ever want me to leave you alone with Naruto… just tell me and I'll slip away from you two."

Hinata turned an even darker red at the thought and Tenten giggled.

"I… I don't think I'm ready for anything like that." She stammered picking up her cup of cold tea and sipped in hiding her face behind her teacup.

"You never know Hinata this could be exactly the kind of break you need. If you want to be alone with him just scratch your nose to signal me and ill slip away and you two can forget all about me."

Hinata just blushed and didn't say anything she knew Tenten was just teasing her and trying to give her confidence a little jumpstart like she usually did. Tenten wasn't expecting her to take her too seriously though she did plan on leaving her and Naruto alone whenever she had the chance to. After all what are friends for.


	2. To the Land of Waves

The squad headed out from Konoha a little after dawn wanting to make the most of available sunlight. Tenten and Hinata had been the first to arrive at the village gate just as the sky was starting to turn blue with the dawn. They had expected to wait awhile for Naruto to arrive but were pleasantly surprised to see him arrive soon after them eager to hit the road.

"Why did I even bother getting up early if Kakashi Sensei's just going to have us wait around anyways?"

Naruto growled sitting down on one of the benches next to Hinata tilting his head back looking at the sky changing colors.

"I-I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for this. He is a busy person after all."

Said Hinata looking over to Naruto her face slightly flushed from his close proximity to her.

"I'm with Naruto" added in Tenten. "You would think a high ranking Jōnin could do something as simple as be on time for a mission."

"Yeah he was probably up all night reading his perverted books and lost a lot of sleep I guarantee it." Naruto explained crossing his arms eyes still fixed on the changing sky clearly still drowsy from having to pull himself out of bed so early. Tenten could tell Naruto despite all his energy wasn't a morning person.

"What books?" she asked. "You mentioned them before Naruto what's he reading?"

"His Make out Paradise books he reads them all the time."

Tenten's eyes widened. "Wait… he… reads those?" she asked thinking of the books she carried in her own collection of Make out Paradise books at home.

"You heard of them?" he asked looking at her.

The kunoichi put her hands up defensively. "Oh no it's just that title sounds like something a girl might read not something for an elite Jōnin."

"Well what can I say Kakashi Sensei's a closet pervert." Naruto said leaning his head back again and closing his eyes drifting off into a light snooze. Tenten's cheeks burned lightly having been inadvertently called a pervert by Naruto.

Soft hardly audible snores came from Naruto as he completely passed out from boredom. Hinata smiled and looked over to the sleeping Naruto. His shoulder slumped and his body leaned into hers. Hinata's smile faded and her cheeks turned red as he unconsciously pressed into her.

Tenten covered her mouth to stifle her own laughter. Hinata was trapped in that place between being embarrassed and being happy. Tenten managed to stifle her laughter and smiled to Tenten followed by a wink. After a few minutes of sitting petrified she managed to let a smile cross her face and eased up letting her body relax to the sleeping boy pressed against her.

"Hmm I thought you would all be ready to leave." Said Kakashi coming up to her his normal eye fixed on the sleeping Naruto and blushing Hinata.

"But it seems Naruto's asleep and Hinata's preoccupied."

Tenten felt one of her veins pulse. "Well it's your fault for being so late! We could have been on the road almost an hour ago if you just showed up." She growled to him.

Kakashi smiled to the kunoichi under his mask. "Sorry I left early but I remembered I forgot to sharpen my kunai."

"Liar" she mumbled figuring the Jōnin's habit of being late was going to be taxing on her.

"Well no use trying to move back in time." Said Kakashi dismissing the accusation of his tardiness Hinata please be so kind as to wake Naruto up for us please."

Hinata reluctantly poked Naruto in the chest with her index finger. "N-Naruto please wake up… its… time to go."

Naruto stirred he opened his eyes and looked over at her before sitting up and looking. "Sorry I guess I fell asleep on you Hinata." He laughed and scratched the back of his head flashing a wide grin at her.

"Got to admit though you sure are comfy Hinata."

Tenten almost expected Hinata to faint at that but was surprised to see she managed to keep her cool having only to suffer her face getting even hotter.

"So are you ready to go Naruto?" Kakashi asked smirking at the scene playing out before him smirking behind his mask.

"I've been ready since dawn Kakashi Sensei. I only fell asleep because of you." Naruto turned away from his sensei and started down the road out of the village.

"Come on we've wasted enough time already so let's stop sitting around."

* * *

No stars shone over The Land of Wave as rain clouds poured down over the small village. A man named Doro stepped out of the local tavern his steps were displaced and he moved with a distinctive swagger. The man could care less about the pouring rain and muddy streets as traveled out of the village to the roads leading out of the tiny village. The man's swagger began to lessen and his steps fell back into their proper order.

He walked determined through the rain his humble clothing clung to his skin and his black hair hung dripping over his eyes and covering his face.

He stopped and turned walking off the road and into a small clearing where he was greeted by a massive sword standing tall alongside a wooded headstone both overlooking there respected mounds of green moss.

The man tucked his wet hair behind his ears and looked the grave up and down eyeing the sword as it stood tall over the patch of earth. With a sneer crossing the man's face he cocked his head back and spat a wad spit upon the green mound. As soon as the spittle had left his mouth the man was in motion ducking a flying arrow as it passed over his head.

The drenched man's hands moved forming a quick succession of hand signs. From the mud rose a long pillar of mud caught between the wet hardened earth almost invisible in the dark was a single steel thread cutting halfway through the mud pillar. He couldn't see the thread but he knew it was there. He could see the split in the pillar it made and saw how the rain hit it. It probably would have cut him in half if he hadn't been expecting it.

More hand signs flashed and the mud gathered at the man's feet and moved up his body covering his skin leaving only his head uncovered by the wet dirt, it moved across his arms and over his hands forming spikes.

"I knew it was you." He said to the dark forest moving into a battle stance. "Those bodies were a dead giveaway Kumo Sabaku. I knew the minute I saw them you used your Razor-thread Jutsu. It always was your specialty."

A hail of arrows few out of the woods towards him. Doro moved into action knocking the arrows away with his spiked arms moving with both grace and strength removing them from their flight.

"You were never half as smart as you thought you were Doro. Though I never thought you would be stupid enough to disrespect our master's grave."

Doro looked up into the tree and spotted his assailant. A dark grey hooded figure stood in the trees a painted steel compound bow clutched in his hands. Doro moved the mud away from his hands and made the appropriate hand signs. The mud beneath his feet stirred and spat forth a hailstorm of stone towards the archer. The shinobi moved through the branches drawing arrows from his quiver and sending them off. The quiver was made of wood and steel plates shaped like a scorpion its tail curled and the legs wrapped around his torso and hooked onto his jacket, the claws were folded at his sides. Kumo drew the arrows from the scorpion's mouth and sent them flying. Doro lifted up a wall of mud to block the arrows. Doro watched Kumo move from branch to branch keeping an eye on his hands. He knew better than to assume he planned to only use his bow. Razor threads and arrows were the least of his problems. Kumo was a skilled puppet master able to control many dangerous automatons with chakra threads so fine he could cut people as well as any steel threads.

An arrow struck the ground in front of him he was already trying to deflect a second arrow when he noticed the paper bomb. It exploded and knocked him back he expected be thrown onto the mossy patch of Zabuza's grave but suddenly found himself being struck from behind. He fell to the ground and twisted catching his balance to land on his feet. He looked up the see a new assailant looming over him clad from head to toe in black plates. An armored hood covered his head and hid him all Doro could make out in the dark was wisps of bright red facial hair framing the mans face.

"You? Nenshō Kinzoku… I wouldn't have figured both of would be alive." Doro stammered the figure moved and he blocked the kunai with mud covered forearm.

"It doesn't matter" he snarled. "I can still kill you both."

Kumo jumped down from tree perch and stood next to Nenshō. His eyes were covered by brass goggles and his thin lips curled into a sinister smirk. "You fool." He said shaking his head in disappointment.

"We already won." Finished Nenshō.

"What are you talk-" Doro was cut off as Kumo jerked his arm up a thin blue chakra string trailing from his clenched fist.

Doro limbs were suddenly incapacitated and tied to his body down he felt many of the thousands of razor threads wrap around him. Some even managed to cut past his mud armor and draw blood.

"You were trapped in my razor threads as soon as you entered this clearing, I've booby trapped this area with my razors.

Nenshō smiled and moved his hands into the proper signals. Doro watched in horror as the kunai stuck in his arm melted and moved across his body to his chest covering his torso in liquid metal. He felt the metal contract and begin to squeeze him tightly as it shrank.

"Wait!" he screamed as he felt his collar bones snap under the pressure. "I'll give you two anything. Just please don't kill me."

Both ninja chuckled and listened to his ribs begin to pop. "You betray our masters… defile his grave and you expect to live. Don't expect us to sink to your level you bastard."

Doro felt his ribs collapse his lungs he couldn't even scream for help anymore.

"Your all going to die Doro we'll kill every last one of you." Said Kumo tightening the razors.

The metal crushed Doro's spine and the night disappeared.


	3. Being shadowed

It had taken their team two days to reach the Land of Waves. They had managed to reach and inn to spend their first night on the road and had booked two rooms for themselves. Kakashi had allowed Tenten to handle the arrangements allowing the girl to place both Naruto and Hinata in the same room.

Her plan might have yielded results. But she failed to understand that Naruto would fall asleep as soon as he hit the bed. About ten minutes before she even entered the room to find a snoring Naruto stretched out on the bed in his boxers.

Kakashi had to give the weapons master credit for trying. Though he had a feeling it was going to take a lot more than simple tricks to get past Naruto's obliviousness and Hinata's shy disposition.

The sky was overcast and it was clear last night had suffered heavy rains. The bridge connecting the island nation to the mainland was littered with puddles they just strode across using their chakra to keep their feet dry.

Kakashi would have felt more comfortable taking a boat to the island like he did last time he had visited this country. Walking across the long bridge he felt very exposed walking across this strip of concrete and steel. He of course could have suggested they enter the country by stealthier means but he figured that would have only served to unnerve the rest of his team.

They stepped off the bridge and entered the village and begun to explore the streets. Kakashi looked at his team.

"So who's hungry?"

* * *

Kumo stared at the leaf shinobi from his perch well hidden between two high buildings at a considerable distance.

"Can you see them?" asked Nenshō from inside the building his elbow propped on the windowsill. He had removed his armored hood and was running his fingers through his red hair. A kunai twirled in his hands and a small pile of cigarette butts had begun to pile on the windowsill.

"You know I can." He said not moving his body perfectly balanced on one of his chakra strings. Although Nenshō couldn't see Kumo's eyes through his tinted brass goggles he could tell he was focused on the Leaf Shinobi too far for his normal eyes.

"So what are we looking at?" He asked putting out another smoke. The bright side of working with Kumo was he could do most reconnaissance needed for several missions without leaving this spot. The downside to this was a drain on his chakra and a few hours of having to watch his back with almost nothing to do but empty a pack of cigarettes.

"Four man squad" he reported taking a draw off his pipe. "Two men two woman. She has a pretty large scroll on her back about a dozen smaller ones brown hair pulled up in two buns. And the other one's…. a Hyūga."

Neosho's brows went up. "Really?"

"She doesn't have a curse seal on her forehead… she's from the main branch."

He looked at his friend still focused on the Leaf team the slightest tinges of concern on his face. "You don't think they know about you?"

"If they were here for me they would have sent more of their clan members to handle the situation she's the only Hyūga member here." He explained letting a plume of smoke out. "Besides they don't even know about me. The only people that knew are dead."

"Or hunting the both of us." He reminded him leaning back and wishing sun would set faster. Word of their most recent kill had already begun to spread through the town and he wasn't interested in taking a night off of work because of a few foreign ninja. Especially one's that would love to get their hands on Kumo.

"Youngest male is blond with an orange and black pants jacket. Standard weapons nothing too interesting. The oldest has silver hair and… Sharingan… its Kakashi."

Nenshō stood up, "he's here?" he asked a clear excitement rising in his voice.

Kumo nodded, "It's possible the rumors caught his attention… we knew their deaths would attract attention."

He chuckled and slipped on his armored helmet. "But its Kakashi… this is just too perfect."

"Sit down… if we're going to do this it needs to be done right Nenshō. He did defeat out master after all."

"That why we need to face him" He growled, "Wherever our master is this is our chance to make proud. What is he doing?" he asked curious to learn more of his opponent.

"He's reading… an erotic novel."

"He's what?"

* * *

Hinata tried to ignore the stairs she and her companions were getting around the tea house. Their leaf village headbands were drawing attention around here. As they caught the attention of the villagers whispers spread. She had already caught mentions of another murder last night; apparently this body had been found next to Zabuza's grave his chest had been completely caved in.

Naruto had already finished his ramen and was waiting rather impatiently for everyone else to finish their meals. Hinata was enjoying her red bean soup while Tenten munched down on her dumpling. Kakashi hadn't ordered anything and sat reading his novel. Hinata was very sure she had seen that exact novel in Tenten's book collection before and decided she would ask about it later.

"You know Naruto… your impatience isn't going to make anyone eat their meals faster. If your unhappy waiting for us just order another bowl." Said Tenten looking outside to the dull grey sky not willing to speed through her meal.

"Sorry I'm just anxious. My first real mission was here in The Land of Waves I just want to get to the bottom of this."

Kakashi tore his eyes away from his book to look at Naruto then shifted his eyes to Hinata's empty soup bowl.

"Hinata, since you're finished you can head to the grave site with Naruto if you feel comfortable. He's the only one here who knows where it is after all."

"Really Kakashi Sensei!?" said Naruto

"It's getting dark and we don't want to miss a look at the scene when it's still somewhat fresh. Besides I have a few people I need to meet in town. Tenten and I will gather information while you and Hinata gather evidence at the scene. It should be easy with her Byakugan to sweep the area of evidence. Sound good for everyone?"

They all nodded and Naruto grabbed Hinata's hand rushing her out the door into the streets. Tenten smiled as she noticed her blush as being grabbed and yanked out by Naruto.

"When you finish your meal head to the towns in and book two rooms next to each other. I'll meet you in the town hall I'm expected to question a few people on the murders."

Tenten nodded, "Should I put Naruto and Hinata in the same room again?" she said wearing a rather mischievous grin.

Kakashi smirked, "I suppose it couldn't hurt."

* * *

Naruto led Hinata by the hand towards the forest clearing where he and Kakashi had buried Zabuza and Haku. Saskue hadn't bothered to help them he said they might as well dump the bodies in the ocean. He had no respect for his fallen enemies; it seemed like one of the many things the Uchiha refused to understand.

As he walked up to the forest clearing his pace slowed his eyes stood transfixed on the two graves. He clenched his fist and his grip on Hinata's hand tightened. He couldn't pin a single emotion as he looked at the graves. He had hated Zabuza he carried no doubts about him being scum. But he had watched him die avenging Haku had seem him shed tears for his fallen apprentice. He hated Zabuza but there was far more to him than meets the eye.

"Um… Naruto?" said Hinata turning his attention away from the two graves. He noticed he was squeezing her hand a bit too tightly. He apologized and let go of her fingers she clutched them in her chest her gaze turned to the soaked body off to the side. It was half submerged in mud and it looked like the mud had filled his chest.

She stepped up to the corpse and activated her Byakugan and focused in on it. She looked at the smashed spine and ribcage and shuddered.

"You ok Hinata?" Naruto asked placing a hand on her shoulder he looked at the bulging veins near her eyes framing her silver eyes.

She nodded and continued to scan the cadaver with her Kekkei Genkai. Aside from the collapsed ribcage the man's body was littered with razor think lacerations. "N-Naruto… this man's chakra system is extremely advanced. This man was trained to focus his chakra."

Naruto grabbed Hinata as a kunai passed over their heads he rolled and drew his own knife from his holster.

A tall ageing man stood on the road a tanto clutched in his right hand. "Who the hell are you?" asked Naruto taking a defensive stance.

"I should ask you the same thing kid" growled the man, "And why leaf shinobi have been killing off my friends."


	4. Eyes like mine

Naruto gripped the Kunai tighter. "What the hell are you talking about? We haven't killed anyone!"

"Liar" he said flipping the tanto in his grip holding it at a backhand style.

"Only a shinobi could have killed Doro. And to think he actually suspected Zabuza to be powerful enough to seek vengeance from the grave."

Naruto chuckled. "Hate to disappoint you but I haven't the slightest clue what you're rambling on about. Whoever is responsible for that guy over there couldn't be from our village."

The man lunged forward into a charge.

"Enough lies you're going to die."

Naruto stepped forward ready to charge the man when Hinata grabbed his jacket pulling him back. "No Naruto it's a trap." A thin flash of silver caught his eye as the man slashed at him with the tanto. The blade broke in two before it could make contact. Naruto starred as the man stood looming over him immobile. Small red lines covered his skin and small rivers of blood flowed down his body. Small thin steel wires wrapped around his body tying the victim down.

Small metal spiders moved cross his body trailing the thin razor wires behind them.

"Over there." Hinata pointed to the trees behind them. Drawing his gaze away from there attacker.

A grey hooded figure jumped down from the trees; brass tinted goggles covered his eyes and a steel and wood scorpion clung to his back its legs. Worn headbands were tired to each shoulder and the scorpions curled tail clutched a curved Dao in a leather scabbard.

"It took you long enough to spot my wires." He said looking at Hinata steel wires trailing from his fingerless gloves, small spools of wire of wire were attached to his gloves over his knuckles. "Let me guess you didn't even see them until I ran my chakra through them did you? And I thought a Hyūga's would know how to use their Byakugan."

Naruto gritted his teeth. "Who the hell are you?"

"Kumo Sabaku" answered the restrained man barely managing to breathe through the steel restraints. He cried out in pain as the wires tightened around him constricting him, squeezing the breath from his body.

"Quiet Jiro" the man hissed holding his fist up lightly pulling on the wires. "I'll deal with you later. After all I have plenty of questions about your so called 'friends.'"

Kumo turned his attention back to the two Leaf Shinobi. "Leave the Land of Waves… my work here has nothing to do with you two or your companions. I do not wish to build hostilities with the Hidden Leaf village."

"Oh yeah and who are you to tell us to get lost?!" growled Naruto keeping a steady grip on his kunai, "After all from the look of things you're the son of a bitch we've been sent here to find."

"If you're concerned over these recent deaths I assure you every corpse belonged to persons of ill repute. If anything I'm doing the people of the Land of Waves a favor."

"What are talking about?" asked Hinata pulling her own kunai from her pouch, "This country's people are terrified of you and what you've been doing. It's why they hired the Leaf Village to find you."

"If these people had half a spine they would have run scum like that man behind you out of the country four years ago when Gatō died. You see this piece of shit Jiro behind you he's a former comrade of mine, a rouge shinobi from the Hidden Mist Village."

"If this man was your comrade why are you doing this to him? Why betray him?"

Kumo smiled, "He and his comrades betrayed me… they betrayed my master to sate their petty greed. Zabuza ordered us to destroy Gatō's company and criminal empire if he died. We were to finish his work and take the Mist Village like he planned. But these bastards decided to become petty and pick up Gatō's scraps. And along the way they murdered and betrayed anyone who didn't follow their crooked path."

"If what you're saying is true" said Naruto, "Then I'm obligated to take you down."

"I see… that's most unfortunate."

Hinata sprung forward as Kumo's other hand jerked up pulling the wires with his chakra. "Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms" she said her hands moving in a blur blue waves of chakra shined as her hands moved to stop the steel razor threads.

Kumo watched as her fingers connected with the wires splitting them in two and stopping them in their deadly path. Her hands moved in every arc perfectly blocking them from every angle.

Kumo smirked and moved his hands into their appropriate signs.

"Water Clone Jutsu."

Water came from the muddy ground and formed into a clone of himself, both clones reached back and drew the sword from the sheath, the scorpion's tail uncurled and the Dao sword separated into twin blades he carried in each hand. They both charged in the clone attacking Naruto while the original rushed Hinata the swords spun in their hands. Hinata and Naruto dodged the blades moving across the forest clearing keeping away and trying to find and angle to counterattack.

"Naruto" said Hinata ducking a sword thrust almost being knocked off balance as the wooden scorpion's tail whipped around the man's body almost impaling her on its sharpened tip.

"Don't leave this clearing Naruto... he's laid his wires all over the area around this I can't handle all of them."

Naruto nodded dodging another sword thrust before throwing the kunai into him. The knife sunk deep into the clones shoulder but didn't destroy the water clone. Making his hands signs Naruto activated his shadow clone summoning three of them to the battle, the clones rushed over to help Hinata. Kumo dodged and retreated from the clones, whipping the puppet scorpion tail around a crossbow unfolded and fired hitting each clone with perfect accuracy. Both Kumo and his clone jumped back, Naruto and Hinata moved to each other's side ready to defend their partner.

They watched as the scorpion on Kumo's back stabbed its legs into his chest and pulled open his chest ripping the ribcage apart. A hailstorm of chakram and kunai flew from both hallow chests towards them. They jumped and rolled to dodge, but Hinata moved too slowly one of the chakram was in her path and she readied herself to take the blow but it never came. She watched as the metal blade ring passed right through her body.

"Naruto it isn't real it's just a genjutsu." But as she said it she saw that it wasn't true for the so called water clone rushed Naruto hearing her words he charged forward kunai in hand only to receive one of the swords slash across his belly cutting it open.

"NARUTO!" she cried rushing over and delivering a punch to Kumo's face knocking him back before he could do more damage to Naruto. The genjutsu broke and while the other Kumo disappeared the other's face and features turned wooden. Hinata's eyes widened she had kept her Byakugan on keeping a lookout for steel threads and chakra strings. But as the puppet moved she saw it and cursed herself, the chakra strings where attacked to the puppets feet and being fed to it through the ground. She focused her Byakugan and saw the chakra run through the ground and into the woods.

She followed the strings with her eyes until she found him almost a full mile away perched in a tree; he controlled the puppet with one hand while the other held a smoking pipe. He smirked at her and Hinata could tell he knew she was looking at him. She focused more to get a better look at his face when she saw it behind his goggles his eyes were silver and framed with protruding veins.

"A Byakugan!?" she gasped. "Impossible."

"What are you talking about Hinata?" asked Naruto clutching his belly trying to keep anything from spilling out.

"This man… Kumo… he has a Byakugan."

The puppet sighed, "I guess the cats out of the bag now." It said voice sounding perfectly normal. "I was hoping to make you leave the country and avoid this… you can't be trusted so now it seems you both have to die."

"Who are you?" Asked Hinata taking a defensive stance in front of Naruto.

The Puppet frowned and although its face was made of wood and metal it truly looked solemn. "I'm sorry but your clan can never know my secret… I'm your half-brother.


	5. release the fox

Tenten gobbled down the last of her dumplings and paid for the meals both hers and everyone else's using the money Kakashi had lent her. She thanked the waitress and headed out into the streets ignoring the stare her leaf headband earned her. It took a couple tries before anyone would give her directions to both the town's inn and the town hall. She stopped in at the inn first and booked their rooms like Kakashi had asked her to making sure she once again set Naruto and Hinata in the same room.

Unpacking her things in her room she headed out to meet Kakashi at the town hall. She cut through alleys and winded her way through the streets. The man who had given her directions had told her she could cut through the town park and she decided to take the scenic route turning into the path through the park. If it hadn't been for the grey skies and mud from the rain last night it would have been a pleasant route to take, but the weather had ravaged the plants and landscape into something unpleasant.

A black kunai flew from the trees and stuck in the path in front of her a paper bomb attached to the end, she jumped back managing to duck behind a tree and avoid the blast drawing one of her scrolls and breaking the seal. She tossed the scroll out and moved into action moving away from her cover drawing a fistful of kunai. A red haired man stood on the pathway covered in head to food in grey painted armor his head was protected by an armored hood and a solid metal scorpion clung to his back. His hands flashed as he readied a Jutsu.

Tenten threw the kunai and begun pulling a Kama from the scroll tossing it to the man, followed by half a dozen shuriken. The man remained still and accepted the weapons taking the bow, the steel weapons hit their marks; Tenten had aimed for the spots between the metal plate and his unprotected face. The kunai landed on target and fell to the ground followed by the shuriken; the Kama hit him square in the face and bounced harmlessly off its blade flattened by the impact.

Tenten pulled a naginata from the paper and charged in slashing at the man while swinging the blunt end around to smack him; the man ducked the swing and jumped back out of her range. Tenten moved to lunge again when something caught her foot. She looked down to see her scattered weapons moving; one of her kunai had snagged her ankle and was anchoring her to the ground. The shrunken liquefied and moved to fuse with the other metal moving up her body warm to the touch. She struggled to free her foot and pull off the creeping steel but it was useless, the metal wrapped around her arms and pinned them together while her legs were bound in a similar fashion.

She struggled and looked at the man standing over her watching as she struggled to free herself. "Who the hell are you?" she growled straining her wrists to slip through but the steel bands only tightened.

"Leave the Land of Waves." He said, "There is nothing here that concerns you or the Leaf Village."

"Those murders we've seen tell us differently." She retorted deciding it was both pointless and wasteful to struggle against the tightening metal.

"No one who has died didn't earn a premature death… some of them were long overdue for it." He said taking a knee over her one of the globs of metal traveled to him and formed into his hand and begun shaping itself into a solid metal tanto.

"And you're in a position to be the judge of that?" she asked accusingly feeling the metal bands loosen slightly allowing her circulation to flow back into her hands.

"As a matter of fact I am. But enough of that leave the Land of Waves with your friends or soon it will be innocent people who wind up dead."

"So much for only hurting those that earned it." She sneered trying to keep her face out of the muddy ground.

"It's not from me you need fear such action from… but these men we hunt… they don't care who they have to hurt, especially if they feel cornered. Given time they'll target anyone they can, even the Leaf Village. Let me continue my work and they won't have a chance to threaten anyone else."

"What are you talking about? Who are you targeting?" she asked no longer sneering at the shinobi.

"No one innocent you can be assured of that." He said before disappearing into the trees.

* * *

"Brother?" she asked not letting her guard down her gaze drifted back into the woods towards the man perched in the tree's smoking from a wooden pipe his face solemn and blank.

The scorpion puppet crawled off the back of the human decoy puppet and moved off to her right flank. "My mother was a woman named Supūru a former ambassador to Konoha from the Hidden Sand village. During that time she was involved with a man named Hiashi Hyūga a man betrothed to another woman." The puppet explained holding its ground and keeping at a ready stance. Hinata moved trying to make sure Naruto stayed behind her. It took all her self-control to keep herself from turning around and trying to close his open wound with her medical Jutsu.

"Why are you doing this? If you really are my Half-brother then why are you trying to kill me?" she asked the puppet ready to defend Naruto at the slightest twitch.

"Why? Why do you think? Do you really think your clan would recognize a bastard, would your farther welcome me into the main branch of your family? Of course he wouldn't. My mother knew that when she fled Konoha and returned to the Land of Wind. If Hiashi learned of my birth he would have placed one of those wretched seals on my head and force me to serve a family I could never be a part of."

Hinata felt her chest sink as she imagined her father grabbing a baby from its mother's arms and forcing the family's Juinjutsu on the crying infant, She had seen the scene play out before with many of the Hyūga's branch members, It had happened to Neji on her third birthday.

She felt Naruto stand behind her, "Naruto… don't move you will only make your wounds worse." Naruto gritted his teeth and a stream of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. "This bastards talking about killing you and you expect me to stay on my knees?" he wiped the blood from his mouth and drew a kunai from his pouch his other arm still holding his belly wound closed. "Tell me you son of a bitch… what gives you the right to decide that we have to die?"

"NARUTO!" shouted Hinata quieting him, "it's alright… I… I understand and I won't let him kill me or you… just sit back down."

It took as second but Naruto obeyed and kneeled down clutching the kunai close to him. Hinata looked over to the scorpion its back plates shined with various village headbands. She shuddered as she noticed Leaf Village headbands among their ranks.

The crossbow on its tail clicked and a volley of arrows few forward, Hinata set herself into motion the bolt broke as her hands made contact shattering them. The humanoid puppet moved in to intercept her it's swords moving in their deadly arcs targeting Naruto. She spun and slammed her palm into the puppets chest slamming it backwards. The scorpion lunged pouncing on her, she punched the arachnid but it managed to stay on steel wires extended from its legs and wrapped around her clinging to her attacking her with its claws and tail pinching her shoulders while the tail curled around and stabbed her back. She screamed and fell to the ground as the scorpion ravaged her. Her collar bones snapped as the claws gripped tighter. Tears streamed down her face in pain. "NARUTO!"

* * *

Kumo watched as the puppet pounced bringing the Hyūga down. His chest sunk as he felt her screams vibrate the chakra strings, he cursed himself for having his Byakugan discovered. The last thing he wanted to too kill a member of the Leaf Village let alone a member of his own family. Nenshō would never let him hear the end of this one.

A bright red ball of chakra suddenly burst into view, the blond headed ninja was suddenly moving his eyes turned red feral. Kumo's eyes widened as he swiped at the scorpion knocking it with his hand and breaking the wires that held it to the girl sending it flying into the trees. He sent the other puppet forwards towards him and the kid moved to intercept it he kicked it in the chest sending it back.

He crouched on all fours eying the puppet and staring daggers at it. He looked more like an animal than a man ready to fight like a cornered dog emanating chakra in quantities he'd never seen before.

Kumo sighed and moved the puppets slowly away from him, the gash on his belly had sealed itself somehow. The boy didn't move to attack standing over the incapacitated girl, cursing he fully withdrew the puppets back to him. He was already low on chakra from using the Byakugan to scout the Leaf Shinobi earlier today. He was already past exhausted and his puppets were damaged and could hardly take another one of those punches. If he hadn't already used the Byakugan today he could just summon more puppets to end this but he was at his limit. Tapping the ashes out of his pipe the summoned the puppets back and left to find Nenshō.


	6. Battle in the Rain

Kakashi turned the page of the book and looked up at the clock in the corner; he'd been waiting for Tenten for a half hour now. He had already spoken with the local police chief about the victims' connections to organized crime. Apparently five of the victims had been found dead in local underground casinos and opium dens, three other victims were know loan sharks and one was even a wanted assassin and was identified as being a rouge shinobi from the Hidden Rain Village, Lady Tusnade's theory about these killing being directed towards the remnants of Gatō's gang was starting to make the most sense.

Seeing the minute hand move Kakashi sighed and marked his page deciding he should go after her and get back on schedule, he stepped out into the drizzling rain and set out towards the inn. He watched people hurry through the streets trying to keep dry and get to the comfort of their warms homes.

He stopped after turning into an alley, "You've been following me since I passed the raman shop on the corner.

The armored man dropped down from the roofs to face him. "Kakashi Hatake" the man said an excited grin plastered on his face.

"It seems my reputation precedes me, excuse me if this seems rude but I haven't the slightest idea who you are" said Kakashi crossing his arms.

"That's to be expected I've gone to great lengths to keep my anonymity, and to arrange this little meeting, I'm here to tell you to leave the Land of Waves, I've already relayed the message to that girl that was supposed to meet you at the town hall."

Kakashi smirked, he figured as much, "Somehow I'm guessing you won't just leave me be if I say I'll take it under advisement."

"No" he said popping his knuckles, "I'm supposed to make an example, a deadly one if I have to."

Kakashi sighed, "I was afraid as much, I suppose if you're responsible for Tenten's absence then your teammate's currently targeting both Naruto and Hinata."

"How'd you figure that?" he asked.

"I just figured as much, I'd be exhausting for just one person to take care of all of us even divided as we are. I'd be quite impressed if Naruto and Hinata both couldn't handle a single opponent."

"Then I guess you'll find my friend to be quite impressive Kakashi, he specializes in handling multiple opponents' at one time, I however enjoy more direct personal methods."

Steam begun rising from the man's hands, red and orange wisps began to swirl into his hands and form into a glowing ball of fire. Nenshō charged forward hurling the glowing orb at him. Kakashi jumped letting the fire pass under him, the fire hit the ground behind him and shifted shape moving to form a barrier behind him stretching from wall to wall of the alley but not burning the buildings. Kakashi closed the distance and swung at him; he dodged the swing and aimed a punch for his face, Kakashi caught his fist and swiped at his legs knocking him off balance. The metal plates of Neosho's rippled and warped shooting out forming long spikes around the surface, Kakashi jumped back the spikes just barely brushing his vest.

"So… it seems fire isn't your only trick, you have the ability to control metal as well." Kakashi tore his headband off and removed his metal plated gloves throwing them over the wall of fire. The metal spikes receded back into the chest plates and the surface smoothed out again, Kakashi watched with interest his red eyed Sharingan shone through the dark rain.

"Don't think you can copy this Jutsu Kakashi my ability to control fire and metals are my inherited traits my Kekkei Genkai." He explained a proud smirk on his face. "Zabuza was very excited to train me and my unique abilities… I once almost bested him with this ability."

"And now you wish to best me with it? I've removed the metal from my body and I've learned a few tricks in those four years."

Kakashi darted forward and delivered a kick to his chest, the chest piece shifted around his boot and as he pulled his foot away the metal had already consumed it his foot slipped out. He crouched and rocketed off his bare foot sending a straight punch into his chest hitting his own boot to avoid touching the metal slam him into the wall behind him.

A single metal spike shot forward but he dodged it before blocking a right hook, Neosho's hand shot forward another glowing orb of fire clutched within it, Kakashi sprung back as the orb brushed against his vest setting it on fire. Kakashi ripped the blazing vest off of him and tossed it aside on the wet ground, Nenshō held the orb up and threw it on the ground creating a bright blinding flash, Nenshō charged forward extending his metal bracers into a long blade and thrusting it through Kakashi's chest.

"I got you!" but as Nenshō heard it the sound of a thousand birds caught his attention, the Kakashi he stabbed disappeared in a puff of smoke as a cluster of lightning in his hand, he forced the armor place to form spikes to intercept him but it was too late, Kakashi tore through he spikes with his Chidori the split metal formed into new spikes and cut into his skin stabbing through his shoulder and belly.

The Chidori cut through Neosho's armor and tore through his skin, blood streamed through the wounds and pattered on the wet ground mixing with the mud and the rain swirling with the brown water turning it maroon.

A thin blue thread of chakra cut into Kakashi's arm keeping it from driving the Chidori into him further, Kakashi grabbed the metal spikes and tried to remove them but they wouldn't budge. Nenshō looked up to see Kumo perched up with a single chakra thread extending from his fingers and looped around Kakashi's arm restraining it from causing him further damage. The forked spikes coming from his armor had stabbed into Kakashi's belly and shoulder just inches away from his heart. The sound of the Chidori stopped and it took all of Neosho's strength to keep himself from keeling over from pain, it he didn't get any medical attention soon he was going to bleed to death, so was Kakashi.

Kumo looked worse for wear, he had no external injuries but he was clearly low on chakra from his Byakugan and taking care of the other two. The sound of feet splashing water sounded from behind and turned to see the brown haired girl run towards him a wooden bo staff in hand, somehow she had managed to free herself from her bonds.

"TENTEN!" shouted Kakashi causing her to stop, "STAY BACK!"

"Kakashi Hatake" said Kumo his voice sounding steady despite his apparent exhaustion, "None of us are in any condition to continue to finish this fight."

"Speak for yourself creep I'm still ready to go." Tenten shouted pointing the staff at him.

"TENTEN!" said Kakashi pulling his arm away from Nenshō's wound.

"We will part ways here" said Kumo releasing the chakra string around his arm as a sign of good faith. Nenshō moved away and with the help of a chakra sting Kumo pulled his comrade up to the roof will him. "Leave the Land of Wave's Kakashi Hatake, our presence and our work does not affect the Leaf Village." Said Kumo.

"You two are sounding like a broken record at this point." Said Tenten between gritted teeth, Kakashi shot her a look but decided to spare her the verbal lashing.

Kumo ignored her, "You can find your other two comrades next to our master's grave where I left them… alive if you're curious."

Kakashi slowly nodded as both shinobi disappeared into the rain.

"Tenten… we need to find Naruto and Hinata."

* * *

They walked through the muddy roads towards the grave keeping their pace brisk and steady though Kakashi was in no position to run. Despite her concerns about his wounds Kakashi walked on through the rain content with the simple patches he had slapped on for the moment.

He found them in the mossy clearing were he had buried Zabuza and Haku. Naruto was kneeling over Hinata a kunai stabbed into the ground for his to grab at a moment's notice. His jacked was on her zipped open the one she had been wearing was torn up and bloodied Naruto had stripped it off and given her his own to keep her warm, her shirt was cup open at the center exposing her chest were Naruto was applying whatever first aid he knew to her numinous wounds. The rain had soaked him and mud and blood covered Naruto's body, his hands were ghostly white from the cold as he worked the thread and needle to stitch a gash in her chest closed, his spikey blond hair was weighed down from the water and despite the rain his swollen red eyes betrayed tears.

"NARUTO" cried Tenten running to him as soon as he came into sight; she moved to help her injured friend taking out her own first aid kit to administer treatment as well.

"Help me" Naruto begged them, "help me… I… I can't stop the bleeding."


	7. Interrogation

The ocean outside roared violently as wind and rain tossed the waves over each other. Noburu Akachi watched the violent scene from the warm comfort of his own home, his opium pipe sat over on the table untouched. The last four years he had grown rather fond of the pipe and the relaxing effects of the valuable drug spending his hours before bed enjoying and the view out his living room window.

He sighed, in light of the recent deaths of his men he had been forced to abandon the comfort along with other luxuries he had grown accustomed to. After spending years living off whatever scraps Zabuza could offer him he had become rather complacent with the local luxuries, he had forgotten the dangers of being a shinobi of having danger loom around every corner constantly needing to be on his guard.

A knock came at the door and he ordered his servant to enter, one of his lieutenants cracked the door to speak.

"Master… Jiro didn't attend the meeting earlier today neither did his second" he reported, "What's more our spies claimed to have seen those four leaf shinobi checking in at the Inn, they seemed to have been gravely injured, supposedly by these unseen enemies."

Noburu sighed, when he had learned of Kakashi's recent appearance earlier today he had suspected the Leaf Villages involvement, but less than twenty four hours and it seemed there troublesome vigilantes had already attacked them.

"Years of easy living have made us soft; the people of this country may be terrified of these killers… but so long as it's just us getting knocked around they won't do anything about it."

"What are you saying Master Akachi?"

"I'm saying we give the people of this country a common enemy."

* * *

Hinata lay asleep on the bed; they had managed to stabilize her conditions and bring her back to the inn and put her to bed. Naruto was sitting at the foot of the bed watching her sleep; Kakashi had been going over his end of the story over and over again trying to make sure they covered every detail of their encounter with the rouge shinobi. The man Jiro he had tried to capture was currently being held in the other room waiting for questing.

"Kumo Sabaku" said Kakashi looking through his bingo book, "It's good to put a face to the name… but he isn't listed anywhere, unlike that man Doro who's been wanted dead by the Hidden Mist village for eight years now."

"He said his mother was a sand village ambassador named Supūru Sabaku, he claimed she was… involved with Hiashi Hyūga."

"If that's true than that would really make him Hinata's half-brother, it's no wonder he's not in the bingo book. If the Leaf learned that the Sand Village possessed someone with the Byakugan I could start a war." Said Kakashi closing the black book.

"But he isn't with the Sand Village anymore, he's a rouge ninja," said Naruto, "He joined Zabuza along with his friend, and now he's hunting down the rest of Zabuza's followers and anyone who's getting in their way."

"From your story Naruto you provoked him into attacking you, if Hinata hadn't seen his Byakugan he probably would have let you leave mostly unscathed" explained Kakashi, "Tenten said when she was restrained that man warned her that innocent people could be drawn in the crossfire if we remained in the country. And considering you and Hinata were targeted when you visited the murder scene I can only assume they meant us along with the people of this country, I wouldn't put it past Zabuza's followers to hurt innocents to protect themselves."

Naruto gritted his teeth, "So you think we should just take their word and leave? After what they did to Hinata!?"

Kakashi shook his head, "For now I think we should observe their actions and see if they stay true to their word, make sure this little dispute doesn't end with civilians in there crossfire." Tenten opened the door dressed in her sleeping clothes, her chocolate hair was down and wet from her shower.

"They attacked us and you want to just give them a free pass?" she asked crossing her arms.

"No, until we know more about who these people are we can't really pass judgment upon them, if their motivations are as simple as they claim I see no reason to turn them into enemies."

Naruto stood and glared at Kakashi, "That Creep Kumo tries to kill Hinata and you don't think he's an enemy."

"Naruto" said Kakashi putting a hand on his shoulder, "I know this isn't easy for you, but right now I have to think about the good of the mission, we were asked to investigate the murders and act accordingly, despite their actions they are not enemies of the Leaf, it may sound strange to you but that creep as you call him was simply trying to protect his own skin."

"But-" he began only to be cut off by Kakashi.

"If anyone tried to take my Sharingan from me or make me there lapdog for it I'd probably kill them too."

"Hinata isn't like that." He retorted fists clenched.

"No" agreed Kakashi, "she isn't like that, but the same can hardly be said about her family. I believe you remember the brand on Neji's forehead binding him to the will of the main branch, Kumo fears that brand and will do whatever he must to avoid it."

Kakashi moved to the door, "I'm going to ask our friend some questions" he said leaving.

Tenten walked over and sat down on the side of the bed shaking her head to get the water out of her ears. "Go take a shower Naruto you look like shit."

He did look pretty awful dressed covered in mud and blood his clothes torn and ragged especially his shirt having been cut open by Kumo's swords, he looked over to the sleeping Hinata on the bed.

"Don't worry" said Tenten reading his thoughts, "I'll watch over her for you the showers just down the hall so you'll hear if anything happens."

Naruto nodded picking up his pack giving Hinata one last glance before leaving to clean himself up.

* * *

The Kunai twirled in Kakashi's hands as he leaned against the wall; he had no intention of torturing Jiro, cutting him to pieces would only make things messy and unreliable, Ibiki had taught him that. The Kunai was just a simple nonverbal reminder that he could torture the information out of him if he so wished. It also served to make him ask question particularly 'what is he going to do with that kunai' and forget about what other people could do to him for talking.

"My friend says you were able to identify the man who managed to snare you. So I'm interested in what you could tell me about them, I was attacked by another man who could control metal. What can you tell me about him?'

Jiro was sitting in a chair his body still restrained by the wires that had ensnared him. "If I tell you… promise me you won't send me back to the Mist Village."

Kakashi took a few seconds to look like he was mulling it over, putting the kunai down he smiled.

"I think I can agree to that, now tell me about these shinobi."

"Their names are Kumo Sabaku and Nenshō Kinzoku I used to work with them when we were following Zabuza around and doing work for Gatō" Jiro explained.

"There not listed in the Bingo book, how did Zabuza come to acquire them as followers?" he asked trying to keep a steady flow of questions, another tactic Ibiki had taught him keeping the questions constant could keep the victim thinking more about the answers instead of the consequences of giving them away or ways to lie around the questions.

"They're both Genin from the Hidden sand village; they both left their village around the same time. Kumo was exiled because of the troubles his Kekkei Genkai could have caused. Nenshō left because of his clan as far as I can tell. We found them surviving in the land of fire, Kumo was a wanted poacher with a bounty on his head. While Nenshō had a bounty posted by his own clan for some reason."

Kakashi turned around and picked up the kunai again just to keep him guessing, "So Zabuza had taken up the bounties on both of them to earn some money? Is that right?"

Jiro nodded, "Yeah he was prepared to kill them… until he learned what they were. Neither of them really argued about him taking them into his fold. Nenshō was starving when he found him and Kumo had gone almost a year without talking to anyone. They were really young back then just a year or two older than Haku but very talented, Kumo was already an accomplished puppet master with an uncanny proficiency for razor wires he could control and make simply by focusing his chakra, it's another bloodline trait he possesses."

"And Nenshō?"

"He was unbelievable with his metal, no one had heard of such a Kekkei Genkai before but there was more to him than that, it took Zabuza awhile but he learned he could create balls of fire in his own hand and manipulate them. The kid said his clan didn't think he possessed their blood line trait but he learned to harness it as well as his metal manipulation."

"So why are they hunting you?" Kakashi tossed the kunai into the air and caught it spinning it three times before tossing it again.

"When Zabuza died he left us orders to destroy Gatō and his criminal empire."

"But you had different plans didn't you?"

"It took some work but despite the setbacks the country was still easy picking for organized crime, and Gatō's death created a power vacuum. We began to take over the gambling houses and drug trade on the island. But there were those that felt obligated to follow the orders of a corpse it started something of a civil war, what's more some tracker ninja from the land of mist were onto us. So we made them a deal; look the other way and we would help them get their hands on unique Kekkei Genkai, including a Byakugan."

"So you betrayed your former comrades." It wasn't a question, the tone of accusation evident in his voice."

"Zabuza was dead and buried" defend Jiro, "and so was his dream we only did what any shinobi would have done, point is they both were taken prisoner by the Hidden Mist, until today I had thought they were either dead or in prison, looks like they escaped."

Kakashi picked the man up and flung him over his shoulders. "Let's go downtown I don't know what else I can ask scum like you."

* * *

Kumo opened his leather pouch and pulled a few dried leaves from it crumbling them in his hand before sprinkling them onto Nenshō's wound. They had managed to find an abandoned warehouse on the town's docks to use as a temporary warehouse; the burning lamps gave them enough room to care for their injuries.

"That Chidori is more powerful that I could have imagined it went through your armor with such ease" commented Kumo handing a small piece of metal wire to him.

"Shut up and let me cauterize the damn thing closed" he said sitting still as Kumo inspected the massive cut.

"Sorry but you're going to need to give this wound some time to close before you do that unless you want to risk nerve damage, or maybe you would prefer to go into shock."

Sighing Kumo took the piece of wire in his hand and shifted the metal to form a sewing needle for Kumo, Nenshō couldn't shift metal unless he had contact with it and managed to implant a small amount of chakra into it, eventually the chakra ran out in the metal the time depending how much chakra he poured in.

Kumo threaded the needle and began to painfully close it causing Nenshō to grind his teeth, "The herbs I sprinkled on should fight infection, give it a day or two and you can burn it closed."

Nenshō nodded, "What should we do about the leaf shinobi?" he asked shifting his armor back over his wound to cover it, with the metal wire keeping it closed he could make sure the wound didn't open up again.

"I doubt they will leave, but if they try to we have to pursue in case they intend to bring back more Ninja, and ANBU team here would ruin everything let alone more Hyūga's."

Nenshō smirked, "If we're lucky I'll get a rematch with Kakashi, not to mention getting finishing off that Hyūga girl."

Kumo didn't want to talk about killing the Hyūga girl, the sound of her scream sounded through his mind and he shuttered, he hated to have others pulled into this, especially people he had blood ties too.

"Kakashi will be hard enough but that Naruto guy will be difficult, it doesn't show very well but he has an uncanny amount of chakra and a temper to match, we need to leave them alone for now and focus on getting to Noburu."

"What about Jiro?" he asked, "you missed your chance to get him."

"Jiro's small getting him will be easy, but Noburu's pulling all the stings, we kill him and everyone else is easy pickings."

"And then what?" Nenshō asked taking a smoke out and lighting it with his finger.

Kumo gave a little half smile, "Don't know we never thought that far."


	8. A Rough Night

Kakashi closed the gate to Jiro's cell.

"Wait!" said Jiro in a panic clutching the cells iron bars, "this is the police station you can't leave me here?"

Kakashi turned, "why not? This is where you belong after all, better in fact considering I smelled a nice miso soup cooking in the kitchen, its more than trash like you deserve."

Jiro let go of the bars, he spoke casually but certain sharpness could be felt on the edge of his tone.

"I'll die if you leave me here, you promised me."

"I promised not to tell the Mist Village about you" he corrected continuing to walk away from the begging man, "I said nothing about freeing you, let alone protecting you."

Jiro fell to his knees, "I'm begging you, you know what those two will do to me once I'm left alone for too long."

Kakashi opened the door to leave the cells, "Sorry but what those two do with you hardly concerns me."

With that Kakashi closed the door on the screaming Jiro.

One of the local police sergeants approached him, "Sir… I was told to find you, there's been another murder."

"A what?"

* * *

Naruto stepped into his room feeling both awake and refreshed from his shower; he had dressed in his spare clothes not bothering with his sleeping attire. Tenten was still sitting on the bed by Hinata silently looking out the window; her hair had been put up in their usual twin buns again.

"Feeling better?" she asked turning to face him.

"A bit" he admitted scratching the back of his head and sitting on the bed looking at the girl sleeping in it, she looked far too peaceful to be wounded, if it wasn't for the bandages on her he wouldn't even have known she had been injured, for a while the only sound in the room was that of Hinata breathing.

"You ok?" Tenten asked noticing his lingering stair.

"Yeah… you can go to bed Tenten I'll watch over her" he said stretching a bit and making sure he had a good amount of kunai in his holster.

"You need to get some sleep Naruto; you can't watch her all night, you've already gone through one hell of a day."

"I'll be fine" he said moving up the bed and propping himself up on the head board, "I'll just have to sleep in the morning, besides if that guy tries attacking us here it will probably be during the night, and I'm the best one here to handle him aside from Kakashi Sensei."

Tenten smiled at him a little, "I guess Hinata would feel a little better knowing it was you looking out for her."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto asked quizzically lifting an eyebrow.

"Oh nothing" she said turning to leave.

Naruto laid back and looked out the window to the raining city, listening to it patter on the window, ten minutes later Tenten entered with a mug and pot of coffee.

"What did you mean?" asked Naruto looking at Hinata.

"Has anyone ever told you your thick headed?" she asked deciding she wouldn't be able to dodge the question a second time.

"Sakura has," he admitted with a little chuckle, "almost every day."

Tenten smiled at the joke, "I'm just saying, Hinata's unusually fond of you Naruto, when we're alone she likes to talk about you."

"She does?" he asked. Tenten smiled and nodded closing the door behind her, "Night Naruto, wake me up if you need me to take over." Naruto looked over to Hinata and sighed; he took the pot of coffee and poured himself a mug.

* * *

Kakashi stared at the three mangled bodies, a small family had been attacked in the middle of the night; the woman's body was all cut into tiny pieces. The man's chest cavity had been blown apart and burned; the little girl was pinned to the wall by two tantos in her shoulders while her belly was split open and intestines dragged out, the girl possessed obvious signs of rape. The scene was positively sickening Kakashi had felt an unpleasant lurch in his stomach.

Whoever had done this grizzly work he would bet his collection of make out paradise books it wasn't the same people who had attacked him today.

"Wasn't enough to kill grown men anymore was it?" one of the officers asked, "now there targeting families too, the man was a former number runner for Gatō's company."

Kakashi sighed, "It looks more like a copycat killer if you ask me, and a very bad one at that."

Kakashi moved to leave, "Tell me if anymore murders happen, I have a feeling more will pop up."

Kakashi cursed the last thing he needed was another person going around killing people, Kumo and Nenshō were in no position to be killing anyone after their encounter just a few hours ago, whoever had done this couldn't have been wounded or low on chakra, either the man's connection to Gatō's company was a coincidence, or this killer wanted to make it look like it was Kumo and Nenshō. Meaning those two were about to make more enemies than they could handle.

* * *

Naruto cursed himself, he had managed to doze off for a while; he was a lot more tired than he had originally thought. He had been awoken by Hinata thrashing on the bed violently, she was screaming in her sleep. Naruto grabbed her wrists and tried to keep her still, she was going to open her wounds if this continued.

"Naruto!" she cried in her sleep sitting up and screaming, the blanket fell away exposing her bandaged chest.

"Hinata!" he called trying to see if he could wake her and calm her down, "Hinata, it's just a nightmare… calm down."

Hinata struggled against his grip before finally calming down; she slumped down leaning against him her face resting against his chest, Naruto grabbed her shoulders to lay her back down when she started to struggle again and he was forced to restrain her from hurting herself, he wrapped his arms around her pinning her arms to her side and keeping her from moving away from him. He felt awkward holding her close to him like this her body dressed in nothing but underwear leant by Tenten and medical bandages. Her thrashing began to become less violent but he still held her down in case it became more violent, Naruto sighed and hoped he wasn't going to have to explain anything to Kakashi or Tenten in the morning.

Hinata's body relaxed and clung to his clothes breathing steadily, he loosened his grip on her and let her sleep against him; he looked out the window to the sky starting to turn blue with the rising sun. he brushed her hair away from her eyes and watching the sky lighten.

* * *

Jiro woke with a start, he had been trying to stay awake in case he had to scream to the guards to help him, not that he believed a few ordinary guards could stop Kumo and Nenshō in there relentless killing spree.

"Noburu?" he asked recognizing his superior standing on the other side of the bars, the black haired man crossed his arms.

"Looks like you got yourself in a mess of trouble Jiro… you'd think a shinobi could avoid being captured by common police."

Jiro grabbed the bars, "Please Noburu you have to help me, if I stay here they'll kill me, they've already tried."

Noburu lifted an eyebrow, "Who will kill you? Did you see the man who's been killing my men?"

Jiro nodded, "It's Kumo and Nenshō!" he said, "They escaped from the Hidden Mist somehow and there here to get even."

Noburu turned to leave, "The killers have a face now this certainly simplifies things."

"Wait" cried Jiro, "Aren't you going to get me out?" he asked desperately.

"Aren't you supposed to be a shinobi? And you can't escape this simple prison pathetic."

Noburu closed the door on his man leaving him to die.

* * *

Sunlight seeped through the window and touched Hinata's face causing her to stir, she felt sore and woozy, and her head felt like it was ablaze. She stayed still hoping sleep would find her again but to no avail, she had slept through some nightmares about a man named Kumo who had fought her with puppets, she had watched as they cut open Naruto and pieced him with arrows.

She opened her eyes to see she wasn't propped up against a pillow but was lying against a sleeping Naruto, her face would have turned red if she hadn't lost so much blood. She lifted her head and looked at him leaning against the head board eyes closed and resting. Hinata tried to move off of him but when she did his eyes snapped open and locked with hers.

"Your awake" he said almost in a daze.

Hinata didn't say anything she just kept staring into his blue eyes.

* * *

Tenten hand Kakashi had already eaten there breakfast and were heading up to check on Hinata and Naruto, Kakashi had already told her about the murder scene he had seen last night along with Jiro's interrogation.

"You think it was a good idea to just leave him in that cell for them?" she asked starting on the stairs to the second level of the inn.

"Think of it as a peace offering" explained Kakashi, "If we show a willingness to allow them to continue their work we can move off their focus as a potential threat and they'll continue their work."

"But is allowing them to continue their work such a good idea?" she asked climbing the stairs.

"If my estimations are right they've already knocked ten pages out of my bingo book, there's nothing really illegal if they decide to knock off another ten."

"But there wanted criminals" she argued.

"Exiles Tenten" he corrected her, "Officially those two are merely exiles from the Hidden sand, according to Jiro Kumo was merely exiled for political reasons, trying to avoid a war with the Leaf Village and the Hyūga clan, Nenshō's reasons remain a mystery but I doubt a child just barely out of academy could have done something too nefarious."

Tenten reached for the door know to Naruto and Hinata's room. "Didn't Zabuza kill over a hundred academy students at the age of 9?"

"Yes" he admitted, "but I hardly doubt that is the case here."

Tenten cracked open the door and shut it again, "Something wrong?" asked Kakashi.

"No" said Tenten, "we should check on them later."

* * *

Hinata's eyes were locked with his, Naruto wondered if she really was acting like herself or if this had something to do with the blood loss. He just stared into her silver pupil less eyes, she was moving closer to him crawling up his body; Naruto's arms moved and clutched her waist as he drew into him, he could feel her breath tickle his face she was so close.

Hinata gave out a little squeal and her face contorted in pain. Naruto felt something hot and wet touch his hands and pulled them back to see she was bleeding. He cursed this was just what he hoped wouldn't happened.

"I'll get some fresh bandages" he said laying her back down and leaving the room to get them.


	9. Escalation

Nenshō flicked the ash off his cigarette and watched as the grey matter fell to the earth fifty feet below him. Three days had passed since there encounter with Leaf Shinobi and so far they had been doing nothing but recognizance with Kumo's Byakugan. After paying a visit to Jiro in prison they had managed to pinpoint Noburu's compound on the island, although compound seemed to be a nice way of putting it fortress was probably a more appropriate term, the stone wall stood high and was surrounded by mist obviously a hidden mist technique.

"Is he in there?" he asked stamping out the butt on the branch.

Kumo nodded pulling off his goggles and leather skullcap wiping the sweat from his forehead, "Yeah, along with thirty guards, along ten shinobi, among them is Misuto he's probably casting the mist Jutsu meaning he'll detect us as soon as we get within that mist."

"That's three more since yesterday" said Nenshō cursing , "looks like he's expecting us to walk up the front door."

"If we want to end this we just might have to go through the front door, Jiro admitted to talking to Noburu before we finished him, meaning he knows we're coming for him and why. Right now all of his eggs are in one basket; we just need to destroy the basket."

"So how do you plan to do that?" Asked Nenshō pulling a fresh cigarette from his pack, they'll spot us if we try getting anywhere near that place, and once inside we're surrounded, I'd be easy if they were normal guards, but these guys can be tricky."

"He's trying to bait us, he wants us to fight him on open ground, he knows he can't make many clever traps that I can't see with my Byakugan so even genjutsu is out of the bag for him, and he needs to make sure we are close enough for him to counterattack. It's almost a direct challenge if I've ever seen one."

"So what do we do about it?" he asked lighting the smoke.

"Let's wait a few days and see how things change my guess is we'll have to take him up on his offer, since sneaking in isn't an option all we can do is wait and see if things change in our favor."

"And if they don't?"

"Then we have little choice but to strike."

* * *

Hinata stood in line at the food stand waiting on everyone's orders; Kakashi had sent her and Tenten out to get lunch for everyone. Once she had awakened it had taken no time at all to close her wounds with medical Jutsu, though she was still feeling some residual effects from the blood loss. After waking up on a sleeping Naruto she had found herself being attacked by a questioning Tenten who wasn't satisfied with hearing that nothing had happened between them. The weapon master had slipped away to ask a few questions, Kakashi had said the phony murders were starting to increase and all the victims were somehow former members of Gatō's shipping company, he suspected the remnants of Zabuza's followers were trying to get the citizens riled against Kumo and Nenshō with the fake murders, from the rumors circulating it was working, since every murder carried collateral damage unseen before. Some of the murders were clearly the work of those two but it showed with their precision and obvious use of their unique Kekkei Genkai. Two nights ago Jiro was found with the iron bars of his cell wrapped around his body crushing his bones.

"Hello Hinata" a voice whispered in her ear, she turned to see Kumo looming over her, she went for her kunai holster but he grabbed her hand.

"Don't make a scene; this is just a simple genjutsu so there's no reason to panic" He explained letting of her hand, "If you panic, I'll be forced to kill you and don't think I can't I'm well within my power to do so."

"So what's stopping you?" she asked trying to appear normal as usual, facing the line again and letting the illusion speak over her shoulder, her hands hung at her sides near her kunai holster.

"What's stopping me?" he asked seeming to wonder himself, "what's stopping me my little half-sister is absolutely nothing that said I don't want to kill you."

She clenched her fists, "somehow that doesn't make me feel better."

Kumo chuckled, "I didn't think I would, I just want you to understand why I'm doing this… surely you know why I can't simply trust you."

Hinata nodded, "You fear my farther would try to brand you with the curse seal" she explained, moving forward in the line trying to keep her voice low to not arouse suspicion.

"Am I wrong to?" he asked.

She shook her head, "No… even I fear my farther at times, if you really are my half-brother my farther wouldn't hesitate to seal you, if not kill you."

Kumo crossed his arms, "So how can I trust you to keep my existence a secret from the Hyūga clan?"

She pulled her hands to her chest, "I… I don't know, I wouldn't want that seal put on anyone, it divided my family and has been the reason behind so much resentment, but I honestly don't know anything I could say to you to convince you of that."

"I see" he said.

"But if I could request something of you… don't hurt Naruto or Kakashi sensei or Tenten, they wouldn't dare tell my father of your Byakugan, they know how I feel about the curse seal" she explained, "I don't my family's mistakes to cost them their lives."

Kumo sighed, "If I hurt you they'll go after me anyways, it's unfortunate but it's impossible to not get them involved… but I won't kill them unless they give me little option."

Hinata nodded, "thank you… I suppose."

Kumo smirked, "Don't thank me; I don't like involving people if I don't have to and I wouldn't be doing this if you hadn't seen my Byakugan."

"What about those leaf headbands on your puppets?" she asked accusingly, "did those people get involved?"

Kumo frowned, "That's entirely different, those shinobi died in action, it was misfortune that brought us against one another."

"And you took their headbands as trophies?" She asked.

"I took them out of respect, those men died for something I never had something I envied and always wanted something only Zabuza was able to promise me."

"What was that?"

"A village… that was my deal when I joined Zabuza; my mother had been forced to flee the Leaf village and the Sand village exiled me to keep peace with the Hyūga clan. I was offered a place in his dream, his newly made Mist village; I was ready to die for it, just like those shinobi were ready to die for their village."

Hinata frowned, "So that why you're killing these people? Because they betrayed Zabuza's dream?"

"I'm killing them because if I let them live after everything they've done I'd be no better than them betraying my master's trust, my dream died with Zabuza not my loyalty."

She looked over to see Tenten approaching them from the crowd; Kumo noticed it too moving to leave.

"One last question" she requested.

"Just one" he said.

"If you kill me… will you take my headband?"

Kumo chuckled, "You don't need to worry about that" he said touching her shoulder, "I won't kill you unless you give me reason too."

Hinata turned to face him, "W-what made you change your mind?"

"I don't know, I guess you could say I want to trust you." He said before fading out releasing the genjutsu.

* * *

Kakashi looked at the scrap of paper on the table; Tenten had brought it back after getting lunch with Hinata, apparently someone was offering a bounty of three million Ryō to whoever killed both Kumo Sabaku and Nenshō Kinzoku.

"This certainly poses a problem" he said closing his book, "Whoever posted this bounty knows the identity of our rouge shinobi."

"What does that mean?" asked Naruto opening his bowl of raman.

"It means whoever posted this bounty is more than likely a former follower of Zabuza" Explained Kakashi, "seems like this is there counter attack to them, they must be getting desperate, there trying to add some muscle to their ranks get some bounty hunters to work for them."

Hinata stared into her soup bowl, "D-do you think it'll work?"

"I highly doubt it" said Tenten, "I doubt most bounty hunters are equipped to deal with those two, unless there ninja trained."

Kakashi folded his arms and sighed, "I agree they hardly possess the skill to pose much threat, but they will make it more difficult for those two to maneuver and such a high bounty would provide plenty of cannon fodder things could get very bloody very soon."

* * *

Noburu watched as his lieutenant entered into the room, "What's our status Misuto?" he asked, "Has anything entered your mist?"

Misuto shook his head, "Nothing but wildlife master… it's been three days, they may not be coming."

Noburu smirked, "they'll come" he said, "they just need some more incentive, bring me Zabuza's sword, that'll stir them up."


	10. End Game

Kakashi turned the last page of his book and sighed, he had hardly expected to finish his book in the single mission but then again he hadn't expected to spend his days waiting around while pages in his bingo book were crossed out. Naruto stood off to his side slurping down the rest of his raman, Tenten and Hinata were taking their time with their food knowing they had little else to go but back to the inn or the scene of another murder.

"You know Naruto" said Kakashi, "you're not going to miss anything if you slow down."

"No kidding" said Tenten, "Nothing happening so why rush?"

A kunai crashed through there window and stuck into their table a paper bomb attached to the end, Kakashi grabbed Naruto as Tenten and Hinata ducked down as the table exploded sending food and table fragments everywhere, Naruto jumped up drawing a kunai.  
"What was that about not needing to rush eating?" asked Naruto jumping out the hole the explosion caused; Tenten couldn't hear him over the ringing in her ear. Five men approached him weapons clutched in their hands, "Guess we should have attached another paper bomb" one of them said, "I told you, these leaf shinobi can't be taken so easily."

Naruto clutched the kunai tighter, "Who the hell are you guys?" he asked.

"Our names aren't really important," one of them explained, "we're just here to remove you four."

"You're making that sound a lot easier than it should be" he explained smirking, "You guys are already way over your head."

Naruto parried a sword thrust and elbowed the attacker in his sternum sending him down, he ducked a slash and stabbed his kunai into the man sending him down he lunged to strike another only to find the man was already getting knocked down by a red haired man in armor.

The metal from Nenshō's gauntlets hand engulfed his hand forming itself into a solid metal mallet cracking the man's skull open as he struck him down, a volley of arrows struck the man Naruto had elbowed as he started to stand, he turned to see Kumo sitting atop the teahouse bow in hand arrow knocked into the string shooting down another.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Naruto growled.

Kumo hopped down from his perch to check one of the bodies, "Saving you four" he explained, pulling up one of the man's shirts reveling a vest laden with paper bombs, "This man's a bounty hunter here to collect the bounty on us."

Kakashi stepped out of the teahouse Hinata and Tenten close behind; they'd managed to make sure the other patrons of the teahouse hadn't managed to get injured in the explosion, "Your average bounty hunter doesn't go into battle with a bomb vest on, what exactly is going on?"

"This man is under a genjutsu, he wasn't even aware he was wearing the vest" Nenshō explained, "our target Noburu seems to think of you four as a loose end, you should all leave if you wish to avoid further incident, were ending this."

"Ending it?" asked Tenten, "What are you talking about?"

"Noburu and his lieutenant Misuto are our last targets," said Kumo, "they've been pulling the strings here for the last three years and posted that bounty for the both of us we're going to end them… tonight."

"That hardly sounds wise" said Kakashi, "you'd be better off trying later; my guess is he's on his guard and waiting for word of how these few faired, I imagine by now someone is already sending word to him of how they failed, and of how you interfered."

"They took our masters sword" growled Nenshō.

"And waiting around won't change much of anything," explained Kumo "Misuto's powerful and possesses a strong hidden mist technique, as soon as we get a hundred meters of the compound they'll already know we've arrived, we're going to risk it."

"I see" said Kakashi, "but I'm afraid I can't let you do that."

Kumo's hand moved towards his swords.

"Don't misunderstand me," Kakashi corrected pulling out his black bingo book, "if what you're saying is true, then this Noburu…here he is" he said finding the page, "he's an A ranked criminal and is directly responsible for the recent murders meaning I'm obligated to investigate, I'm afraid I have to accompany you."

Naruto looked at his sensei with disbelief, "No way Kakashi sensei, you can't be serious; I'm not working with them."

"We don't have time to argue about this Naruto" said Kakashi, "either you tag along or stay behind, that applies to every one of you."

The scene was dead quiet until Hinata spoke up, "I-I'll go… with you" She said clutching her hands to her chest.

"So will I" said Tenten, "I've seen enough innocent die here to allow anyone to get away with it I'm going too."

Everyone looked at Naruto who was glaring at Kumo, "Fine" he growled, "I'll tag along."

* * *

Misuto watched the mist swirl in the moonlight atop the compounds walls, five days of preforming his mist Jutsu he was starting to get impatient as well as tired, it didn't take much chakra to perform the Jutsu it only took concentration to keep it up, he only managed to get a few hours of sleep every day during high noon, some of his trained men could perform the hidden mist Jutsu but unlike him they couldn't sense object and people entering into the mist, they kept his sleeping patterns completely random in case anyone managed to figure out his dilemma.

He felt two forms enter the mist from the north, he moved along the wall to face it calling his archers to the north wall, they lined up and watched the illuminated mist before them trying to spot the two intruders.

Two silhouettes formed in the mist walking alongside one another, one of the guards knocked an arrow and pulled back the string letting the missile fly, the arrow soared through the mist hitting the target and breaking into splinters as it hit the taller of the two figures.

Misuto watched as the two figures came into view, it had been four years but he could still easily recognize his face, his black piercing eyes seemed to look straight through the mist directly at him, the others figure's face was blank covered by a white mask.

"Zabuza" he whispered looking at the face of his former master and his apprentice walking side by side towards the gates.

Zabuza and Haku leapt jumping atop the wall, flecks of blood splattered Misuto's face as his men were hit with Haku's needles. Zabuza slammed his bare hand into an archer's chest pulling out a handful of bloody flesh, another man charged him sword in hand but he spun dodging the blade and grabbing the man's throat with his gore covered fist squeezing the man's neck snuffing the life out, his neck turned blue and he clawed the hand holding him. Misuto could already tell his wind pipe had been crushed but the man didn't stop till his spine broke with an audible crack.

Misuto flashed hand signs and the mist began to swirl forming to faceless humanoid shape armed with icy curved Daos. They moved to attack Zabuza who moved to dodge slashing at them with a rusty kunai; they dissipated into swirling mist as soon as the blade made contact the icy swords shattered on the ground as they were destroyed.

"It seems you haven't just spent the last four years in a brothel Misuto, you've developed a most interesting Jutsu." Said Zabuza, moving towards him Haku moving towards his side tossing needles at the remaining mist clones.

"You're dead" Misuto hissed forming the proper hand signs to release the genjutsu, "Your genjutsu can't fool me Kumo."

The images of Haku and Zabuza distorted and the images of Kumo and the blond haired kid from the leaf village. More mist clones formed and the two moved into action, the kid tossing the needles and quickly dispatching the clones, Kumo discarded the kunai and drew one of his curved swords the mist clones disappeared and reformed themselves not even fully forming them to strike random arms and torsos slashed with their ice weapons; they dodged and deflected the blows perfectly mostly Kumo using his chakra threads to tangle the clones the threads stretched and attached to the blond haired ninja "You always did enjoy your puppets Kumo; they were all more annoying with your Byakugan."

An icy Dao stuck the bond kid making him disappear into a puff of smoke, a shadow cone, Misuto directed the mist clones to attack Kumo when his senses were overloaded feeling countless enemies enter the mist. He canceled the attack ordering his clones to attack the intruders; more of the kids shadow clones had converged on the wall working to attack him.

He eyed the nine clones surrounding him all of them trailing blue chakra threads controlling each of them in in perfect harmony, Kumo attached his chakra threads to the clones and took control of them commanding there movements flawlessly.

"The chakra you infuse in your mist concentrates itself when you form a clone; it's like a bright light to my eyes Misuto."

"Interesting" admitted Misuto, "but pointless, you're still outnumbered, and more vulnerable than ever."

The Narutos smirked, "and you're too dumb to realize our plan already worked."

Misuto eyebrows rose as Kumo moved the clones with the strings, "Noburu will be dead any minute now" he explained, "and so will you before long."

* * *

The wooden door shattered under Nenshō's steel boot as he broke it open. The brown haired Kunoichi jumped past him and dashed into the room a pair of steel sai in her hands. She lunged for Noburu who sidestepped her attack, he turned to face her, a tanto in hand Tenten withdrew back from him thinking he was trying to attack her, but the knife didn't move to cut her. The crime-lord slid the blade across his palm spilling his own blood.

"Watch out." Called Nenshō grabbing her shirt collar and yanking her back, the blood in his hand shot out forming into a long crimson spike stabbing into the wall.

"Are you ok?" he asked and Tenten nodded.

"Noburu smiled, "I take it you've never seen a Kekkei Genkai like this before" he said to Tenten cutting his other palm open letting the blood pool in his hands, "It was believed to have been lost for a hundred years, until I came along."

The pools of blood in his hands formed and extended into thin long crimson blades, he moved forward to them thrusting and slashing with the blood swords. Nenshō shifted the metal of his armor and formed a thick metal club in his hand.

"Try not to open any wounds" Nenshō said, "He can't bleed to death so there is no point."

Tenten nodded and deflected one of the red swords with her sai, Nenshō charged in brandishing the steel bludgeon, Noburu parried the club and moved to attack, Nenshō's focused his chakra and formed one his balls of fire in his palm thrusting it at him. Noburu spun around dodging the attack and sending his elbow across his face knocking him back. A sharp pain and the taste of copper filled his mouth; Tenten sent a kick strait into Noburu's side forcing him back. Her ankle snapped and she felt her mussels' burn in pain, she felt like she had kicked a block of stone.

"I have complete control of my blood little girl," he said extending one of the red blades in her direction, "it's like having armor inside my own body."

Tenten tried to dodge the red blade but her injured ankle shot pain up her leg as she tried to move slowing her, the blade cut into her shoulder and she screamed getting knocked back to the wall the rust colored sword pinning her to the wall.

"I expected this kind of foolish behavior from Nenshō, but to think the leaf village would choose to die helping them."

He retracted the blade as Nenshō moved to attack another fiery ball gripped in his hand tossing it at him, Noburu dodged letting the fire fly into the wall behind him were it burned a large hold before going out leaving.

"Stop playing with the bun-head" said Nenshō spitting out a glob of blood, "I'm the one who's going to kill your remember."

* * *

One of the clones disappeared in a puff of smoke, Misuto smirked, it had taken his mist clones long enough. Kumo's Byakugan was able to see everything from a 360 degree vision that could be extended indefinitely; he could see the chakra in his mist and noticed it gather when it formed a clone. Some of his other men had moved in to join the fight but they hardly managed to last very long against the clone puppets.

As another clone was destroyed he smiled, "I think you reached your limit Kumo" he said calling off the clones, "Are you really ready to die for a corpse Kumo?"

"Do you really think I'd come this far to go back on my word?" he asked smirking, "I've been prepared to die a long time Misuto threatening me with it won't get you anywhere."

He laughed, "Kill you? Why would I kill you when the Mist will reward me handsomely for turning you in again, there is still much they can learn of your Byakugan."

Misuto could feel Kumo glair at him through his tinted goggles, "I'd die before I go back" he swore, "I'd sooner hang myself than suffer though there cruelty."

"I'll tell them that when I hand you over to the tracker ninja" said Misuto stamping his foot activating the flash bomb he had hidden at the bottom of his sandal, the white blinding light reflected off the white mist intensifying the brightness, even though the tinted lenses it was blinding. Kumo and the clones covered their eyes screaming in agony, the clones dispersed in their respected clouds of smoke as they were assaulted by the mist clones leaving Kumo completely alone.

"The biggest weakness of the Byakugan" lectured Misuto as a mist clone formed behind Kumo stabbing in the side with its icy blade, "is that they are still your eyes, meaning if I can blind you it's useless." Kumo screamed in pain, the wound was far from fatal but certainly crippling his hand moved to hold it closed as another clone slashed at his calf severing the mussels. He forced his eyes open only to see an image of a smirking Misuto burned into his retinas, after a few second the image faded to a frowning Misuto flanked by two of his clones.

"It's a shame really, you waist all your potential for a dead man who never truly cared about you in the first place."

Another blade touched him though it didn't cut, the icy flat of the blade shattered against the side of his head knocking him over onto the ground.

Kumo chuckled causing Misuto to raise an eyebrow, "What's so funny? I don't think I've ever seen you laugh before."

"Your right" Kumo admitted, "It's strange but I can almost hear Zabuza lecturing me right now, calling me a fool like he used to."

Kumo pulled off his goggles and wiped the blood from his eyes, "in those years I spent training with him he never once praised me on my work, the closest thing he ever did to praising me was 'not' tell me I screwed up. You'd think I'd be bitter about it but in reality that accepting silence was more praise anyone except my dead mother had given me and I'm not about to forget that. You keep asking us why Nenshō and I are willing to die for a corpse… I'll make it simple for you. That corpse is more real than anything we have, Zabuza was the farther we never had and we don't dishonor our family."

"A shinobi doesn't feel love Kumo; didn't Zabuza ever teach you that?" Misuto crossed his arms amused at the young ninja.

"He did" he admitted with a sigh, "and I can already hear him berating me for being a fool, but I'm not as big a fool as you."

"How am I the bigger fool Kumo, you're the one who's bleeding out and on the ground?"

Kumo smirked, "I'm not the one who's getting distracted by my opponent."

Both mist clones as his side dissipated as kunai hit them, Hinata and Naruto emerged from the mist, Hinata leapt forward kunai in hand, she slashed at Misuto but an emerging clone parried the blow. Hinata leaped back to avoid a thrust from the sword. Naruto's clones engaged the emerging mist clones one by one while Hinata rushed to Kumo's side the veins of her Byakugan bulging.

"Get away from my half-brother" she said taking a defensive position.

"Brother?" he asked amused, "and I thought you'd try to kill the Hyūga, didn't you say you'd kill every Hyūga you could to protect your secret?"

Kumo didn't say anything to that; he was just as shocked to see Hinata come to his rescue. "Where's Kakashi?" he asked noticing the Jōnin's absence.

"He's handing a few bounty hunters we found in the woods he'll be here any minute." Explained Naruto sending another clone to oblivion with a kick.

"You didn't have to come to my rescue" said Kumo trying to stand up clutching his bleeding side; his hand pulled a small hand crossbow from his side. His sliced calf wouldn't allow him to fully stand so he settled for simply kneeling.

"I said I'd help you" explained Naruto, "and I'm not about to go back on my word just because of some creep with a fancy Jutsu."

"That's right" said Hinata, "besides, like it or not you're a part of my family, and I'm not about to dishonor that either."

Kumo smiled, "don't misunderstand, I mean you two don't need to help me I got this."

Kumo fired the crossbow into the air, a thin thread of steel trailed from the end and suddenly a thousand razor thin threads were pulled taught the mist swirled as they moved through the air only visible when they shone in the light. The threads cut through the clones and there ice swords before finding their way to Misuto. He didn't have a single chance to dodge as they sliced into him from a thousand different angles taking off his head and cutting his body to ribbons.

Kumo smirked before keeling over and vomiting bile and blood everywhere, Hinata followed the wires with her Byakugan and saw his tiny spider puppets attached to the walls there tiny steel legs gripped into the rock, there large backsides trailing the length of wire to one another.

She ran to Kumo, "hold still, I can heal you."

Kumo nodded, "I couldn't have sent the puppets out if he hadn't stopped to talk" he explained, "that man always talked too much."

* * *

Nenshō pressed his palm into the wall burning a hole into the wood, Noburu had managed to dodge his attack once again, the room was littered with burned holes and Nenshō wasn't sure how many more attacks like that he could do before he ran out of chakra. He grabbed the straps for his metal armor and let the heavy steel plates fall to the floor clanging against one another, he hardly had the chakra left to warp the metal, not that it would help him that much Noburu's blood manipulation could stand up to most attacks he could do with it, even trying to engulf him in metal and crush him would hardly work, he had learned that the hard way sparring with him years ago when they were allies. His blood armor could handle the pressure and all he would do was waist chakra, he had hoped to burn him with his fire palm technique, if he poured enough chakra into that attack he could melt though steel, but it was draining him and Noburu was a lot spryer than he remembered.

He parried a slash from the blood blade with his metal pole, the blood shifted, bending around his block and slicing his arm open.

"How did you ever escape that prison?" he asked accepting his attack with the club allowing it to bounce off his rock hard body.

"By thinking long and hard about killing you" he answered, "and learning some new tricks."

"It seems to me you learned very little Nenshō," The red blade thrust forward and Nenshō ducked and rolled away trailing his own blood along his path, he didn't know where Tenten had gone off too she had slipped away during the fight, probably to get help or make sure no one got in his way.

"You were never the quick study like Haku, always getting too emotional during training; it's almost shocking you learned anything."

One of the red blades bubbled and formed itself into a large mace, Noburu swung the blood sword and extended it, Nenshō moved back to avoid the slash but the end wrapped around his ankle pulling his leg out from under him. Nenshō tried to roll but was too slow as the mace came down on his hand smashing it, the heavy metal club fell from his grip, and the smashed finger could hardly grip anything.

Nenshō cried out curses at the pain, it didn't stop the mace from coming down on his other hand smashing the bones in it to pieces.

"I hope you learned a lesson today about leaving things alone Nenshō, next time don't run into your death."

The mace swung down to crush his head; he closed his eyes and willed his body to move. A loud clang filled the room; he opened his eyes to see Tenten standing over him blocking the blood mace, Zabuza's massive sword clutched in her hands.

Nenshō jumped up, "Give me the sword" he ordered.

Tenten looked at him, "You can't hold it… I can barely stand with it."

Nenshō put his right hand on the hilt focusing what little chakra he had left, blue chakra strings emerged from his fingers and wrapped around the hilt, his mangled fingers wrapped around it as the chakra strings lashed his broken fingers to the thick hilt.

"Chakra stings and a rusty sword? Is that it?" Noburu asked watching the glowing blue strings bind his hand to the sword despite their shattered state.

"Kumo and I swapped some Jutsu when we were in prison, I'm not very skilled at making chakra strings but I know enough." He lunged forward swinging the large sword; Noburu ducked the blow and lunged to attack him only to be blocked by the brown haired kunoichi wielding a pair of tonfas.

"I'm sorry master" Nenshō mumbled to himself, "I know I haven't earned the right to wield this sword just yet… but I need it master, I know I'll make your proud."

Noburu defected a barrage of attacks from the girls tonfas gritting his teeth, "you're talking to a dead man you fool."

Tenten pulled back from her attacks as Nenshō thrust the massive blade forward making contact with his chest sinking the tip deep into his sternum. "He's more alive than you" Nenshō hissed.

Noburu was pressed into the wall by the thick blade, flakes of rust fell from the blade and it cut into him deeper as if it was being sharpened by the second. The skin around his wound was starting to blacken and it was only growing.

"H-how?" he asked, "my blood armor."

"This isn't just a normal blade remember? It regenerates itself by stealing the iron from its victims blood." He explained as the blade pressed all the way through Noburu, "Your armor is useless against it that blackness is from an iron deficiency in your blood ever heard of Anemia?"

The crime lord's body went cold and slumped down, Nenshō removed the blade it fell to the ground as his chakra stings dissipated. Tenten moved to catch him as his legs went weak; she threw his left arm over her shoulder and helped him stay standing.

"Let's get you out of here" she said helping him walk her own limp slowing them down all the more.

"Grab the sword" he slurred, Tenten didn't argue and grabbed the hilt dragging it as she limped, he knew he should treat the sword with more respect than that, but neither had the strength to lift it fully.

"Thank you" he said to her trying with all his strength to put one foot in front of the other.

Tenten elbowed him in the ribs causing him to cough a bit of blood, "why did you do that?"

"That's for calling me bun-head" she said earning a bloody grin from him.

"Sorry" he said, "But I don't know your name."


	11. Confronting the Mist

Hinata's hands glowed green with chakra as they closed cuts all along his face. His brass goggles had been removed and he stared around with his blank pupil-less eyes. Hinata stared at them looking at the thin purple scars that framed his eyes; they doubtlessly had been intentional cuts made around his eyes with surgical care. She ran one of her fingers over the scars feeling the rough surface. "How did you get these?" she asked tracing the line down to his temple. "Did you get these in prison?'

Kumo nodded, "they tried whatever they could to replicate my Byakugan" he explained grabbing his goggles and sliding them on again.

The sound of metal scraping against stone turned everyone's heads; Tenten limped into view Nenshō hanging off her shoulder knees weak, Zabuza's sword dragged behind them on the ground.

"Tenten" said Naruto moving to help her, she handed Nenshō off to him and limped over to Hinata while Naruto took the sword and moved Nenshō to the wall next to Kumo leaning him and the sword against it.

"Noburu?" Kumo asked turning to his comrade.

"Dead" he answered too exhausted to even open his eyes, "Died of anemia," he explained.

Kumo looked at Zabuza's sword leaning against the stone wall and smiled, Nenshō chuckled despite the pain.

Hinata healed Tenten's leg beads of sweat running down her forehead; she had been using the Byakugan for the whole fight and was feeling the strain on her chakra with medical Jutsu. "You fractured your ankle but you should be fine if you stay off it for a while."

"I'm fine look at Nenshō, he's hurt pretty bad." She said sitting down.

Hinata nodded and moved to him taking his hands in hers, she surveyed the damage with her Byakugan, his fingers were horribly broken in several places slivers of bone cut into the muscles this was one wound that wouldn't heal quickly. She poured her chakra into his hands trying to move and knit the bones back together. If he had allowed his hand to heal naturally she wasn't sure he'd be able to use it properly, she suspected it'd take a few days for her to completely knit the tiny bones back together properly.

Hinata took the bandages from her pack and wrapped his hands tight so they couldn't move and cause further damage. "If you want to use these hands again I suggest you refrain from moving your fingers, you're going to be unable to use them for a while."

Nenshō cursed holding up his bandaged hands, "I suppose I should be lucky to use them at all, I couldn't even move my fingers without the chakra strings to help."

"How did you do that? It looked painful." asked Tenten leaning on the wall next to him wrapping gauze aground her ankle.

"It was painful" he answered with gritted teeth, "Immensely so…. Why'd you grab the sword?" he asked looking over at the blade shining anew in the moonlight.

"I thought you could use it… poetic justice and all that." She said smiling, "Turned out to be a good idea in the end."

They all sat there in in silence watching the artificial fog lift with no master to create more, aside from the sounds of their collective breathing and the chirping of crickets in the distance no one made a sound.

The silence was broken as Kumo stood up bracing against the wall ignoring Hinata's protests; he lifted the goggles from his eyes the veins of his Byakugan popping from his skin. "We're not done yet" he said pointing into the mist.

Everyone followed his finger to three forms emerging from the fog; white faceless masks concealed their faces the four waves cut into the surfaces marking them as hidden mist ninja.

Hinata stepped forward activating her own Byakugan, "Stay behind me" she whispered, Naruto moved to her side taking a shuriken from his weapon pouch.

"Don't bother" said Nenshō standing up and shuffling past them both with Kumo, "this isn't your fight… we knew they'd find us eventually so we've prepared for this."

"If you're worried about the Byakugan I assure you it won't fall into their hands, they can't take me alive to copy it."

Naruto gritted his teeth and grabbed Kumo's shoulder, "Who said I needed your permission to protect you? We promised to see you both through this and that's exactly what we're going to do."

"That's right" said Hinata stepping in front of Nenshō blocking his path.

Nenshō smiled, "Not that we don't appreciate the sentiment… the agreement you made was to help us kill Noburu and finish Zabuza's orders, you've already fulfilled your agreement so don't act like you owe us anything."

Kumo shrugged off Naruto's shoulder, "we knew they'd find us eventually" he explained, "we knew from the beginning it was going to inevitably end like this. Nenshō and I knew the consequences when we began this mission."

"Consequences?" asked Tenten pulling a ball and chain from her scroll, "consequences for what? Killing that treacherous trash Noburu? Or are you talking about your Kekkei Genkais? Either one I'm not buying it so stay behind us and shut up."

"We're not your comrades' damnit," growled Nenshō.

"I don't know about that," Kakashi stepped in front of Hinata taking the front of the formation, "you've already fought alongside us, and certainly gained my respect, what say the rest of you?"

Naruto smirked and looked at Hinata who nodded, "Were not about to set aside for these bastards" He said.

Tenten smirked, "I'm willing to fight these creeps so long as the redhead doesn't call me bun-head again."

Kakashi smirked, "that's very good… but I don't think this will have to come to fighting meaning you can spit out that poison capsule."

Kumo sighed and spit out a small rubber pill that had been clenched in his teeth, "You better be right Kakashi, we're putting everything on the line here."

Kakashi nodded and stepped forward to meet the tracker ninja.

"We're here to retrieve those two fugitives" one of the trackers explained stepping out of the mist, "we have orders from our village to use violence if necessary."

"One of these so called fugitives" said Kakashi "is a member of our villages Hyūga clan, unless you are willing to start a war with the hidden leaf I suggest you allow us to be on our way."

"The leaf can't start a war if they don't know what has happened here… and who's to tell anyone if you're all dead?"

Kakashi crossed his arms, "I thought that option would cross your minds, but if you're going to think like that let me warn you that you're hardly prepared to handle the consequences."

"Consequences?" one of them asked, "You six are in no position to make threats, you may outnumber us but you've hardly any chakra left among you for a fight, and we're more than ready for a fight, half of you can hardly stand let along preform a Jutsu."

Kakashi held his hands up in mock surrender, "oh no, I hardly mean us" he said smiling, "You are certainly right that you possess the capability to defeat all of us… I mean if you're ready to start a possible war with the Leaf, you see after I handled those bounty hunters I wrote a scroll detailing everything to the Hokage… including Kumo's Byakugan and the mist villages interest in it. I gave the scroll to one my ninja dogs and sent it to Konoha… you'll never be able to catch up to him now he's already crossed into the Land of Fire."

"You what!" cried Kumo clenching his fists.

"He's lying" said one of the trackers behind the leader.

"Am I?" asked Kakashi, "Seems to be a pretty large gamble just for one fugitive… even if you do kill us all the Hokage will know what the Hidden Mist has done here tonight."

The tracker that had spoken out drew a Kama from a sheath but the leader held his hand up, "the risks here aren't worth the potential prize… we'll leave Kakashi tell your Hokage the hidden mist sends its regards." The faceless figures disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Kumo glared at Kakashi, "You weren't bluffing were you? You told the Hokage?"

Kakashi nodded, "I did and I also told her to keep news of this away from the Hyūga clan, I'm sorry to say this but I can't let the two of you just walk away from all of this, I'm afraid I have to take you two in for questioning, I'm sorry but I have a duty to perform."

Nenshō stepped forward holding his wrapped hands up ready to fight, "You don't think I'll just let you hand Kumo over to the Hyūga clan? You know what they'll do to him!"

"That's right" said Hinata, "My farther won't hesitate to seal his Byakugan… and that's if he doesn't decide to kill him."

Kakashi turned to him, "Now hold on everyone, didn't I say I told the Hokage to keep this news away from the rest of the Hyūga clan… I'm not planning on leading you two to your death."

"Then what are you planning?" asked Kumo eyeing him with curiosity.

"I won't impression you two… and I can't let you two wander free least you both get captured. I therefore see no choice but to see that the both of you become leaf shinobi."


	12. A new Beginning

The thick heavy blade slide into the moist ground. Kumo released the handle and let it sink further in stepping back from the moss covered grave. The blade shone in the sun no longer speckled with dirt and rust, the way the sword towered over the patch of earth made Kumo smile, it looked so regal standing up out of the ground like that shining brightly and reflecting the blue clouded sky.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked turning to Nenshō. "Didn't you say you were going to wield this sword someday?"

Nenshō shook his head smiling, "Not yet… I still have a long way to go before I can claim any right to this sword, next time I come here though… I'll have earned it."

Tenten crossed her arms smirking, "Are you sure? This sword dose suits you and besides how will you know when you've earned it? You've already killed Noburu."

"Noburu was trash, killing him didn't earn me anything except the right to leave this country behind me… I'll know when I've earned the right to wield it."

Kumo picked up the scorpion puppet and slung it across his back the wooden legs attaching to the rings on his jacket; he turned to the grave one last time and bowed.

"Goodbye master."

Kakashi looked at them arms folded, "It's time to go."

Hinata helped sling Nenshō's pack over his shoulder, "Can you manage?" she asked him knowing he was still a little weak from the fight last night.

He nodded and they set out together.

"You're very calm about being forced into our village; I expected the two of you to put up an argument at least." Tenten asked matching her pace with Nenshō's.

He smiled, "there isn't much to argue about, considering the alternative was dying… besides Kumo probably loves this."

Tenten looked to the puppet master silently walking alongside Hinata, "Hinata did say he wanted to be a part of Zabuza's Mist Village. But what are you getting out of this?"

"Me?" he asked raising his head a little to think about it. "I guess you could say I'm not expecting anything from the leaf." He rubbed the back of his head looking at the cloudy sky. "But I guess if I can train with you lot it won't be for nothing. Are the rest of the Leaf shinobi as good with a blade as you?"

Tenten smirked, "Sorry Red but I'm one of a kind, if you want to learn to be that good you'll need to learn from the bun-head."

Nenshō grinned, "That doesn't sound so bad."

They stopped as they reached the end of the bridge leading off the island where three figures stood waiting for them. A bald headed man stood with two masked ANBU on either side.

"Ibiki" greeted Kakashi, "I was hardly expecting to see you here."

"Are these the fugitives you wrote about?" he asked looking at Kumo and Nenshō.

"They are" said Kakashi shaking Ibiki's hand, "I take I you three are here to retrieve them?"

Ibiki nodded, "that's right; we're under orders from the Hokage to detain both prisoners and escort them to Konoha for immediate interrogation, I have to insist that both of them be immediately disarmed."

Kumo and Nenshō stepped forward handing their possessions over to the ANBU members, Kumo handed over his scorpion puppet along with his bow and belt holding his kunai, paper bombs and several summoning scrolls. He surrendered his gloves and spools of steel razor thread along with the small spider puppets. Nenshō surrendered his armor along with his supply of paper bombs and a bag of small metal ball bearings.

The ANBU members slipped black bags over their faces and bound their hands together with silk cords taking note of the Kakashi's letter to not use metal. As soon as the two were secured they pulled syringes from their jackets and stuck them with the needles.

"It's a mild sedative" explained Ibiki seeing Hinata's reaction, "We will meet you all in Konoha for debriefing."

Ibiki and the ANBU members picked up the two bodies and disappeared into the trees. "Well no use waiting around here" said Kakashi, "lets head home."

* * *

Tusnade eyed the four of them from across her desk her hands folded in front of her, Ibiki stood off to her side. "Ibiki has told me your mission was a complete success."

They all nodded as Kakashi stepped forward handing her a stack of torn pages. "What is this?" she asked shifting through the papers.

"Pages from my bingo book" explained Kakashi, "They'll need to be replaced considering the names in them have all been crossed out by those two we brought in."

Tusnade's eyebrows rose, "Fifteen pages!?" she asked receiving a nod from Kakashi, Ibiki took the pages as Tusnade handed them to her and looked through them one by one.

"Excuse me" said Hinata looking at Ibiki, "but um… how are Kumo and Nenshō… did they make it back just fine?"

Ibiki nodded, "They are currently being detained, I'm here to witness your debriefing and use what I learn in my interrogation of those two and see if their stories match up with yours."

Hinata stared at the floor for a while before Ibiki spoke again.

"If it is any consolation both of them have been highly cooperative and have shown little signs of resistance."

Hinata smiled and nodded. "May we see them?" asked Tenten.

"Absolutely not" said Tusnade, "those two are to stay confined until Ibiki has finished their interrogation and feels they can be trusted."

"And if Ibiki feels they can't be trusted?" asked Naruto.

"I've been given full authority to dispose of them however I see fit." Explained Ibiki putting the torn pages back on the desk.

"They've done enough to earn our trust" said Tenten, "they have my trust."

Ibiki looked at them all, "Do you all feel this way?"

When everyone nodded he folded his arms, "I'll take your opinions under advisement, however before I can interrogate them I'd like you hear your sides of the story… so please start at the beginning."

* * *

The florescent lights hummed overhead bathing the room in white light. Kumo looked at his own image in the two way mirror on the far wall wondering how he could be so unfamiliar with his own face. His goggles had been taken from him and he was forced to see himself and his white eyes. He had been forced to hide his Byakugan behind the tinted lenses for as long as he could remember; his mother had insisted he keep his eyes a secret and he had just that. He had become accustomed to wearing the leather and brass goggles even while he slept; pale lines marked his face showing where he wore them. He also wondered what people were looking at him from behind the mirror, he could of course find out with his Byakugan but they would see that and he would only rouse suspicion.

The steel door opened and the large bald headed man entered in stepping over to the table and taking a stead in front of him. Ibiki stared at him before opening a notebook and clicking his pen.

"Let's start with some simple questions" he said, "Kakashi Hatake and his team have spoken on your behalf and if this goes well you and your comrade may be granted citizenship within Konoha."

"I understand." Kumo said folding his hands together.

"What's your name?" he asked simply already writing away in his notebook.

"Kumo Sabaku" he said casually.

"And you were born in Suna?" he asked looking up from his notebook.

* * *

"I was" said Nenshō leaning back in the wooden chair trying to get comfortable.

"But according to Kakashi Hatake's report you left Suna when you were 12, why did you leave?" Ibiki watched the redhead scratch his head.

"My clan wanted me dead" he explained, "The kazekage wouldn't offer any protection so I left Suna."

"You're speaking of the Kinzoku clan?" he asked the pen dancing across the paper.

"That's right."

"Why did your clan want you dead?" Ibiki stared at him looking for any change in facial expression.

"Can I get a cigarette?" he asked ignoring the question and leaning against the table.

"I'll get you a pack after we're done here" he explained scribbling in more notes, "Once again why did your clan want you dead?"

"They thought I didn't possess their metal manipulation Kekkei Genkai?"

Nenshō smiled at the obvious trick question, he was trying to see how much he knew of the Kinzoku clan.

"No they believed I didn't have their ability to make fire in my palms, they didn't want me associated with their clan."

"But you do have the ability to make fire in your hands."

Nenshō nodded smirking, "I didn't learn about this ability until I started my training with Zabuza."

Ibiki nodded, "Have you considered returning to your clan now that you clearly possess their bloodline trait?"

Nenshō frowned, "Fuck no; I'd rather go back to prison."

"Why is that?"

Nenshō looked Ibiki in his eyes, "If you met my family you would understand."

* * *

"Your mother's name was Supūru Sabaku, is that correct?" asked Ibiki. It had been two days since there last interrogation session and so far things were going smoothly on both ends. Ibiki had just about managed to ask all the questions he could think of. His notebooks were practically a biography for both subjects and each interrogation he managed to fill in more details of their lives.

He dropped an open file onto the table in front of him a picture of a blond haired woman with caramel skin looked up at him. The picture was taken ten years before his birth but she looked the same as she did the day she died.

"That is correct" he said taking the photograph in his hands.

"And this is her picture?"

"Yes" he said looking at the detailed files giving her known history and abilities to the leaf village."

"You claimed she was an ambassador to Konoha and was having an affair with Hiashi Hyūga, do you have any proof that you are Hiashi's son?"

Kumo shook his head setting the photo down, "No, I always had to believe my mother but I don't possess anything physical other than my Byakugan."

He scratched at his short black hair, "Though my mother often told me I looked him with the exception of my tanned skin."

Ibiki nodded taking note of his complexion, "Did your mother speak fondly of Hiashi?"

Kumo nodded closing his eyes, "Sometimes, she never admitted this but if it wasn't for his engagement I believe she would have stayed with him, but she was also concerned how the Hyūga clan would treat a bastard child."

"So your mother brought you to Suna, and trained you as a shinobi. Did she train you as a puppet master?"

"A little" admitted Kumo, "she trained me to use chakra strings as weapons, unlike most puppet masters we can form the threads to be razor thin and cut through flesh. After a few years she convinced lady Chiyo to train me."

"How did she convince her?" Ibiki handed Kumo his wooden pipe already packed with tobacco, he took the pipe, holding it as Ibiki held a lit wooden match to light the contents.

"My mother was once a student of Chiyo herself, but when Chiyo learned of my Byakugan she agreed."

Ibiki raised a single eyebrow, "Why did that convince her?"

Kumo gave a little half smile, "she was very bitter about the Second Shinobi War she thought it was poetic to be able to train a member of the hated Hyūga clan she managed to keep my secret from the rest of Suna but took pleasure knowing we had gained the Hyūga's fabled Kekkei Genkai."

"I see" Ibiki said nodding, "were you fond of lady Chiyo?"

Kumo nodded, "As eccentric as she was I enjoyed her tutorship."

"I hate to inform you of this but two years ago she died?" said Ibiki.

"What?"

* * *

Nenshō lit his cigarette on the match Ibiki had lit; a metal lighter would be too much of a security hazard to be allowed within twenty feet of him.

"When Zabuza died you and Kumo were soon captured by tracker ninja from the Hidden Mist village?" Ibiki had awakened him in the early hours of the morning about three hours before he would usually wake up. It was a common tactic to disorient him and see how his story's fit with sudden questions and what details he would give in his tired sleep, many trained interrogators wouldn't host their interrogations on a consistent schedule it would give the subject time to prepare their stories and mentally ready themselves for any tricks or tactics that could be used.

"Yeah we've already been over this" Nenshō said sucking in the smoke.

"But the both of you managed to escape. How is that?" Ibiki ignored his protests and asked away.

"After four years Kumo and I managed to get into contact despite our separate cells, he learned to send sound vibrations through his chakra strings in order to speak to me."

Ibiki turned the pen in his fingers used to the story already, "And he taught you to create chakra strings?"

Nenshō nodded, "I managed to use them to steel a kunai, it was more than I needed it was like a master key to me."

"And how did Kumo escape?"

"Once I opened his cell he managed to use me like a human puppet, after that I was unstoppable."

"You mentioned he could feed his own chakra directly into your body."

Nenshō flicked his cigarette, "As I've already told you he can see my chakra points and attach his chakra strings to them feeding it straight into my body charging me with his chakra."

"That's a lot of power for a single man to have over you?" Ibiki said clicking the pen.

"Kumo couldn't have made it out without me, and vice versa we'd be dead if we tried any dirty tricks."

Ibiki smirked, "But you trust him completely?"

Nenshō took another draw off his cigarette, "I do."

* * *

Ibiki dropped the two files on Tusnade's desk arms crossed. Tenten, Naruto, Kakashi, and Hinata sat in front of her ready to hear Ibiki's report. Two weeks had passed since they returned from the land of waves and everyone was on edge since. They had all been forbidden to speak of the two prisoners that they had taken back with them and were forced to secrecy.

"Their stories check out" said Ibiki, "they fit together perfectly with each other and the debriefing from the mission aside from some minor details, but those are to be expected."

"What of their equipment?" asked Tusnade, "I trust you had it analyzed."

Ibiki nodded, "Several ANBU members shifted through their gear, aside from the puppets we confiscated most of seems to have either been built through Nenshō's metal manipulation or stolen from the Hidden Mists prison, the scrolls we confiscated only contained simple weapons and puppets some we suspect were given to him by lady Chiyo when Kumo was being trained in Suna, naturally the puppets contained traps when we tried to disassemble them but we managed to avoid any injury, the puppets didn't contain anything illegal or nefarious the traps were just in place to avoid anyone from learning their internal workings."

"If we allow them to run freely through Konoha do you think they could cause trouble?" Tusnade shifted though the files pouring a dish of sake for herself.

Ibiki shook his head, "I hardly doubt it both of them seemed to be convinced they wouldn't last long in the open, their plans to eliminate their former comrades seemed to be the extent of their plans."

"They were completely willing to die as soon as the tracker ninja showed up." Added Kakashi.

"That's why I doubt they would try anything nefarious here" agreed Ibiki, "aside from Kumo's distrust in the Hyūga clan they show no form of resentment to Konoha, I have my confidence they will blend in nicely."

Tusnade sighed and looked at the five sitting before her, "Let me make one thing clear to all of you" she looked them over one by one, "These two are your responsibility, if anything happens because of them I'm holding all of you accountable, and I trust each of you to report any strange activates directly to me."

She turned and looked Hinata in the eye, "Hinata, I already know your feelings on the matter, but I can hardly stress how important it is that the Hyūga clan doesn't know about either Kumo or his Byakugan. I don't want to see him within a mile of the Hyūga compound, is that clear?"

Hinata nodded, "yes."

Tusnade took a sip of her sake, "I guess the time has come send them in."

* * *

Kumo and Nenshō looked at blond woman staring at them from across her desk. She eyes each and every one of them as Ibiki stood off to her side.

"Let me make one thing clear" said Tusnade, "I wouldn't hesitate to eliminate either of you two if it wasn't for the people in this room. You both owe your lives to these people Ibiki included, I trust you two won't forget that" They both nodded to her.

"I have made accommodations and living arrangements for both of you, in a weeks' time I will be deploying you on simple missions."

"With who?" asked Nenshō, looking at Tenten who stood off to his side sitting quietly a content little smile on her face.

"For the time being you two won't be assigned to any team, your both Genin and I'll deploy you both however I see fit with whomever I see fit."

"Genin?" said Nenshō, "don't you think we've crossed out enough pages in the bingo book for that?"

"You two are lucky I'm letting you live let alone continue your carrier as shinobi, and from what Ibiki's report says Kumo left Suna before graduating the academy, so granting you the rank seems more than fair."

Nenshō quieted at this, she reached in her desk and pulled a headband out handing it to Nenshō, She pulled out a leather skullcap with the head plate and brass goggles for Kumo.

"This is to be worn at all times" she explained, "it has a sealing Jutsu that will keep anyone from the Hyūga clan from looking through it; you can still use your Byakugan while wearing it."

Kumo took and looked at it seeing the archaic symbols on the inside sealing it, he ran his fingers over the leaf symbol; he slipped it on and adjusted the goggles and tightening the strings at the back. Nenshō tied the headband onto his forehead planning to secure the plate onto his armored hood as soon as he got it back.

"Is this all understood?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am" they said.

"Good, now get out of my sight I'll see you both in one week, and don't forget how short your leash is."


	13. Making Oneself at Home

Kumo looked at the stone faces of the five Hokages outside his apartment window. He and Nenshō had been given apartments on opposite sides of the city away from each other.

"Do you like it?" asked Hinata setting one of his bags on the bed.

Kumo silently nodded, "It's been a long time since I had a room of my own, almost ten years in fact."

Hinata smiled warmly opening his pack and stuffing his clothes into the drawers. "I know this is all very new to you… but I'm sure you'll be able to start a new life here. Naruto, Tenten and I can show you around town later. Is there anything you will need for your apartment?"

Kumo opened the sliding door and stepped out onto the balcony feeling the warm breeze blow it. "I think I'll start a garden out here… I often need to grow my own ingredients."

Hinata nodded, "I know a flower shop that will be able to help you get started, it's mostly focused around floristry but they sell gardening equipment and seeds. One of my friend's mothers owns it so they'll be more than happy to help you out." Kumo nodded stepping back inside and sat on the bed.

"Do you need anything else?" Kumo shook his head, "I'd like to be alone for now come and get me when you, Naruto and Tenten are ready."

Hinata nodded, "Ok, I left some money for you on the table; feel free to use it to get whatever you need. If you need help finding anything don't hesitate to give one of us a call I've left a few phone numbers for you to use."

Kumo nodded and Hinata shuffled out the door, leaving him to the quiet of his apartment. The veins around his eyes protruded as he activated his Byakugan looking through the walls and simple furniture. He sighed as he saw the small electronic bugs placed all over his apartment to listen in on him. it seemed it was going to be awhile before he could gain anyone's complete trust.

* * *

Nenshō dropped the bags as he entered the door and collapsed on his new bed stretching out on it and staring at the white ceiling above him. He pulled his pack of smokes from his pocket and heated his finger to light the end.

"Aren't you going to unpack?" asked Tenten stepping up to the bed and looking down at him.

"Why bother?" he said taking a draw off his cigarette. "It's not like I'm going anywhere any time soon so I might as well relax and take things slow."

Nenshō felt the wind get knocked from him as Tenten threw his pack on him the heavy bag weighed down by his armor. "Smoke breaks over Red start unpacking." Said Tenten opening the drawers. Nenshō recovered himself and sighed opening the bag to begin unpacking.

"So what am I supposed to do here for a week?" he asked.

"Hinata, Naruto and I will show you around later, I'm sure we can help you find something to occupy your time until Lady Tusnade has some missions to go on." She explained folding a shirt and putting it into the drawer.

"What about training?" he asked putting his armor in the closet. "I believe you owe me a few sparring sessions."

Tenten smiled, "I'll show you the training grounds soon enough, for now we're just going to try and get you situated. I'll have to make room in my schedule to train with you."

"I appreciate it" he said closing the closet door and sitting back on his bed to finish his smoke, "Doesn't seem much use staying in Konoha if I can't train with the locals."

Tenten smirked closing the drawer and sitting down next to him, "I think my sensei might like your spirit." She said looking around the empty room.

"Can I meet him?" he asked leaning back against the wall cigarette hanging off on the corner of his mouth.

She giggled, "sure but I warn you he's a bit eccentric."

Nenshō smirked, "Kumo's always been a quiet guy after four years I could use a little eccentric company."  
Tenten smiled and stood up, "Ok but don't say I didn't warn you Guy sensei is probably more than you bargained for."

He got up and followed her to the door holding it open for her. She turned back to him and handed him a wallet. "Here we have some money for you to spend until you start earing some on missions." He took the wallet and tucked it away.

"I wouldn't even begin to know what to spend it on; I already have everything I need here."

Tenten raised herself on the tips of her toes and pecked his cheek, "We'll just have to remedy that won't we?"

She waved him goodbye and left, Nenshō close the door and smirked happy he had come to Konoha.

* * *

Ino Yamanaka slumped over the counter and scanned the empty flower shop. She had spent the last week looking after the flower shop since apparently she wasn't needed on any current missions. The last mission she had been sent on had been a simple C rank escort mission with nothing to show for it except a long walk with some traveling merchants.

The bell rang announcing a customer's arrival, Ino perked up. "Welcome to the Yamanaka flower shop how may I help you? Oh hey Hinata!"

Hinata walked in a tan skinned man at her side, a leather skull-cap with brass goggles and leaf head plates covered his head and face a grey hooded jacket on his hands tucked into its pockets.

"Hey Ino." Greeted Hinata waving at her stepping up to the counter as the guy started to look around quietly browsing the collection of flower seeds.

"Who's the guy with the mask?" she asked watching as he picked up a few seed packets and moved over to the empty pots stacked against the wall.

"A friend" she explained leaning against the counter, "He's looking to start a garden in his apartment."

Ino raised her eyebrows watching him move through the shop collecting various tools and seed packets in his stack of flower pots.

"He doesn't really look like the gardening type." She said.

"He said he uses the plants and herbs for various things, he's very skilled with various poisons and antidotes."

"I see" she said as he approached the counter setting the contents down in front of her.

"Hello" she greeted flashing one of her friendliest smiles, "I'm Ino Yamanaka nice to meet you."

The man nodded to her, the tinted glass of his goggles made it impossible to tell if he had made eye contact with her.

"Kumo Sabaku" he said introducing himself to her. "Dose your shop take orders?"

"Not usually" she admitted looking away from the dark glass that stood in front of his eyes, "But I'm sure we could work something out, do you know what you want to order?"

He nodded and handed her a small handwritten list of various herbs and flowers some of which she had never heard of, others hardly grew in the Land of Fire. Of the ones she did recognize all of them were either poisonous or used in making medicine.

"You know my mother's placing an order tommarow I can add these to her list and have them sent in for you. You'll have to wait a week though it can take a while for the plants and seeds to come in. Sound like a plan?"

He nodded and laid the appropriate money on the counter to pay for the items. "So what are you two up too?" she asked as she opened the register.

"Just hanging around town" she said, "Tenten and Naruto are outside waiting for us, we're about to head over to Ichiraku raman Kumo and his friend have never been there before. Would you like to join us?"

Ino looked at the clock on the wall and removed her apron. "Sure why not we can afford to close twenty minutes early, since we have a new customer and all."

She hung her apron on a hook behind the counter and proceeded to close up the shop making her way to the door locking it behind her as she stepped outside to a waiting Naruto and Tenten. A redheaded man leaned on the wall beside the shop talking with Tenten.

"Hey Ino" greeted Tenten, "You joining us for Ichiraku?"

She nodded and looked at the redhead, "Yeah, who's this?"

"Nenshō Kinzoku" he greeted dropping the cigarette and stomping it out.

"I haven't seen you around town either" she said as they started heading to everyone's favorite raman stand.

Nenshō rubbed the back of his head and smirked, "I'm getting that a lot I've been out of town for a few years so has Kumo."

"I see where were you for so long? It's unlike Leaf shinobi to be out of the village for so long."

"That's classified." Nenshō explained looking to the silent Kumo who nodded at this.

"I see" she said deciding this wasn't the right moment to pry.

* * *

Kumo looked at the steaming bowl of miso raman set in front of him. He took a pair of chop sticks and politely waited for everyone to be served before eating. Kumo looked over to Nenshō who sat on his side and whispered.

"Did you find the listening devices in your apartment?" he asked keeping his tone low.

"I managed to find a few." He admitted glancing over to Naruto who was too enamored in his second bowl of raman.

"It's not as easy without your special eyes you know. How many did you find in your place?"

"Twelve" answered Kumo eating some of the noodles.

"Should we remove them?" Nenshō asked tipping his bowl to drink the broth.

Kumo shook his head, "For now let them listen, removing them would only bring further mistrust… besides it's not like we have anything to hide."

Nenshō smirked and looked over to Tenten who looked up from her bowl flashing him a smile. "Enjoying your raman?"

Nenshō nodded and turned back to Kumo. "Speak for yourself; I don't like the idea of the ANBU black-ops listening to me if I have a particular kunoichi at my place."

Kumo sighed, "If you're uncomfortable with it I suggest you conduct such activities elsewhere."

Nenshō emptied his bowl, "yeah, yeah some home I can't even bring a girl to my place without a Special Forces team knowing about it."

Kumo and Nenshō ordered another bowl and ate in comfortable silence. Nenshō smirked as his acute ears picked up the blonde's voice speak to Hinata in a hushed tone.

"Why's Kumo hiding his face?" she asked stirring her noodles around with her chopsticks.

"I… uh… I don't really know" lied Hinata, "I haven't seen his face myself I just met him and Nenshō on my last mission."

"You're not a very good liar Hinata" said Ino leaning in closer and lowering her voice, Nenshō perked his ears up to catch every word.

"I bet you've seen it so what is it? Why's he hiding his face? Burns?" she asked sipping her tea.

Hinata shook her head, "No… it's nothing like that his face is normal… he just needs to keep it hidden that's all."

Ino sighed, "Sounds like he's taking a page from Kakashi's book."

Hinata giggled and sipped her half empty bowl, "he's been away from the village for a long time Ino he and Nenshō both didn't have any families they feel like strangers here."

Ino smiled, "Well it's always nice to have a new customer in the village, I'm sure they'll learn to fit right in."

Nenshō smirked and turned back to Kumo who had finished his bowl and was silently drinking his tea. "Don't look now but the blonds asking about your face, looks like you attracted the curious type."

Kumo sighed and finished his tea. "That could make things difficult."

Nenshō clapped his friend on the shoulder. "Come on Kumo things may not be ideal here but relax we're home now after all. I though this is what you wanted."

Kumo said nothing and poured himself more tea.


	14. Meeting Might Guy

Kumo held out the large flailing cat hanging by its back legs tied together with a length of wire. He handed it to the plump exasperated woman who grabbed the animal and pulled it to her chest hugging it. The cat named Tora fruitlessly tried to struggle away from the eccentric woman but was ultimately defeated by her surprisingly superior strength. Two days into his first week doing missions and he had already been sent to retrieve Tora three times. Two days and he and Nenshō both had completed seven D rank missions.

Tusnade sighed as the woman paid her leaving all the while coddling the defenseless cat. "Good work Kumo" she praised handing him his share of the payment, "it seems you've managed to make hunting that pathetic creature down to an art."

The door opened and Nenshō walked in. "Don't tell me you used Kumo to hunt that poor creature again?" he asked setting the envelope of cash down on her desk. "I'm almost ready to pay your to let the damn cat go."

Tusnade sipped her tea and sighed, "It doesn't work like that I'm afraid and what are you doing back here? I though Iruka sent you on a mission."

"Calling it that is an insult to the word mission, and it was some simple roof work didn't even need the hammer to put in the nails."

"You're supposed to be keeping a low profile." she said through her teeth. "It's bad enough I have to dodge questions about you two, but unnecessarily using your Kekkei Genkai for a simple chore is bound to raise some eyebrows."

Nenshō scratched his head. "Yeah well the alterative would have taken too long and I sort of have a date if you know what I mean."

"I don't care if you have a wedding to get to." Yelled Tusnade. "Your abilities are to be kept on the down low and used unless absolutely necessary. Not flaunted around just because you can't manage your time."

Nenshō sighed, "Sorry next time I'll use the stupid hammer, but why are you giving us all of these lame D ranks I overheard two Jōnin in the hall talking about all the pages they had to cross off in their bingo book and apparently their having some issues replacing those pages."

Nenshō pulled a cigarette from his pack and lit it. "Don't tell me you forgot who crossed those fifteen pages out? And that's nothing I believe Ibiki looked though the bingo book I had stolen from the hidden mist, I crossed out thirty six pages there."

Tusnade gritted her teeth. "Kakashi failed to mention how arrogant you could be. The fact of the matter is your still a Genin and you're not assigned to a team. Until we have a mission that requires you to be teamed up you'll be working whatever I can give you. Also don't assume that just because you can cross out a few pages in a bingo book you can impress me. You both are still on a very short leash."

"I know" he said dismissively, "it's kind of hard for me to forget considering you never fail to remind me. Can I go now? Like I said I have a date."

"Fine you can go." Tusnade surrendered. "But if you don't keep that attitude of yours in check you can expect to find yourself doing nothing but D rank jobs."

"Fine" he said as Kumo silently left leaving the two to argue. "I'll try not to drive your patience just don't expect me to stay content fixing roofs. Before being dragged here by Kakashi I was more than willing to take my chances out there."

Tusnade looked at the papers on her desk, "That option has pasted, now that you're a part of Konoha leaving isn't really an option for you so you'll have to endure these simple tasks like them or not. Now don't you have some place to be?"

Nenshō turned and opened the door. "Oh yeah my date… if you can call it that. Don't hesitate to think of me when you're making a team for an A rank or higher."

As soon as he exited the office Tusnade reached for her Sake bottle she needed a stiff drink.

…

Kumo clutched his side in pain, after finishing his mission he and Hinata met at the training grounds to practice his Taijutsu skills. He had been trying to learn the Hyūga's gentle fist technique with limited success. She had been patient with him but it was evident he was terrible at hand to hand combat and close quarters fighting even with the advantage of his Byakugan.

His sense of smell was bombarded with the smell of the various flowers of the Yamanaka flower shop. He had waited a little more than a week for his order to arrive; the seeds he had plated in his apartment had already started to take root.

"Welcome to the Yamanaka Flower Shop. How may I help you?" a brown haired woman greeted him from behind the counter, a friendly smile on her face.

"Ino isn't here?" he asked stepping up to the counter letting his grey hood down.

"Someone asking about me?" Ino said stepping out from the back room smiling.

"Oh hey Kumo" she greeted flashing him a smile, "I'm about to head out on a mission" she explained, "I'm afraid your order hasn't arrived quite yet, you should give them a few more days."

Kumo nodded and turned, walking out the door. Before he reached the end of the street Ino had caught up with him and matched his pace. "Sorry about your order" she said, "I should have warned you that orders can take longer than expected."

"It's fine" he said pulling his pipe from his jacket and lighting it with a match.

"I saw you chasseing Tora the other day, is Tusnade's sending you on missions now?"

He nodded and drew it a breath of smoke letting it out in a grey cloud. "I've been running D ranks for the last two days." He explained.

"Well catching Tora is almost considered a rite of passage around here; we've all done it a few times."

Ino looked over and stared at the darkened glass of his eyes wondering how he was able to see though the tinted lenses.

"Can you see?" she blurted out much to her embarrassment.

He turned his head and despite not being able to see his eyes she knew she was looking at him.

"Of course I can see. Why wouldn't I?" he said tipping the pipe over to empty the ashes.

"Well your goggles have a very dark tint to them." She said looking away, "I've been trying to get a good look at your eyes through them but I can't see anything, no matter how the light reflects against the glass."

"I can see though the glass just fine" he said stuffing his hands into his jacket's pockets, "Though I suggest you stop trying to get a glance at my eyes."

"Why?" she asked as he moved to turn down the road in the opposite direction, "Why do you hide your face anyways?"

Kumo looked back at her stone faced. "It's better for everyone if you don't know." He explained, walking off leaving her behind.

…..

Nenshō slashed at Tenten wish his Kwan Dao sending the kunoichi back. She folded back the corner of her large scroll and pulled several shuriken clutched between her fingers, she tossed them at him and pulled a of length of chain from the scroll. He spun the spear deflecting the shuriken sending a thrust at her as she swung the chain over her head at him.

She dodged the blow and wrapped the chain around the weapons shaft tangling it and wringing it from his grasp and tossing it into the wood. Nenshō drew a tanto from his hip and charged slashing at her.

The strap carrying her large scroll was split in two and fell away Nenshō kicked the scroll away and continued his assault.

Tenten rolled away from him and drew her own knife strapped to her calf and lunged forward slashing away. Nenshō parried her attacks and dodged her faints trying to keep up with her unusual finesse. She pushed him back and forced him into closer quarters trapping him in the thick brush. Nenshō ducked a slashed and kicked outward making her withdraw from her attack. He unleashed a flurry of slashed on her that she blocked expertly. He grabbed her wrist holding the tanto and thrust his knife forward only to have her twist out of the way and land his knife into the trunk of a tree. His metal manipulation made the steel move around the tree like clay. The cold tip of a kunai touched the back of his neck.

"Got you" breathed Tenten managing to grin.

Nenshō sighed in defeat and dropped the ruined knife raising his hands in mock surrender even though her weapons would be as effective as his knife was on the tree; he and Kumo had used this training tactic countless times.

Tenten laughed and removed the kunai the triumphant grin still plastered on her face as she sat on a log whipping the sweat from her face. Nenshō moved to join her trying to catch his breath.

"Not bad Red" she huffed, "Not many people can give me a run for my money, and I can't really train with steel weapons against anyone else."

Nenshō smirked, "I'm not really supposed to be using my Kekkei Genkai unless I have to."  
"Well what's more important than training?" she asked leaning back on the log.

Nenshō caught her eyes and grinned, "My thoughts exactly."

She leaned into him and brushed her lips with his, her arms moved across his shoulders and her hands played with his red hair. Nenshō gripped her waist and pulled her into him till she was almost in his lap. She broke the kiss as they heard someone approaching them they looked up to see a tall man in flak jacket and green jumpsuit grinning at them.

"Tenten my little pupil why didn't you tell me you had a boyfriend?"

Tenten blushed and shuffled off of his lap. "Uh… Nenshō I'd like you to meet my sensei Might Guy."

Nenshō stood as Guy offered him his hand to shake. He clasped it and felt the man's surprising strength crush his hand. The man's white toothy grin stayed the same and Nenshō wondered if the man was intentionally trying to hurt him or was simply putting too much energy into this hand shake.

"Were you looking for me sensei?" she asked seeing Nenshō grit his teeth in pain making Guy release him.

"Yes I was, Lady Tusnade seems to have a mission for you Tenten and asked me to fetch you immediately, I figured being my student you could only be hard at work training."

Tenten nodded to her sensei and smiled to Nenshō. "Sorry I have to go, I'll see you when I get back ok." She ran off towards the Hokage tower Nenshō waving her off.

"Training hard?" asked Guy watching him wipe the sweat from his brow.

"Yeah" answered Nenshō, "I'm about to call it a day."

"You can't hope to keep up with my student with an attitude like that" he proclaimed putting an arm around his shoulder making Nenshō cringe a little in discomfort.

"I can't have one of my pupils dating a slacker, what do you say you join me for a little midafternoon marathon? Get to know each other a little better."

Nenshō had already exhausted himself quite a bit sparring with Tenten but wanting to impress her teacher found himself saying. "Sure"

Might Guy pulled him by the hand and dragged him along until they had both broken out into a steady run. "That's the spirit kid and after our little run how about I treat you to dinner."

"Sounds like a plan" said Nenshō trying to keep up with him.

"Good then you can join me for my evening marathon."

"Evening Marathon!?" Nenshō groaned feeling his calves burn.


	15. A new mission

Ino climbed the steppes of the apartment complex; Kumo's seeds were stuffed in a brown paper bag and clutched in her hands. Her mission had been rather rough and had lasted a few more days than expected. She had been assigned another simple escort mission that had gone terribly wrong, the particular client in question failed to mention he had a small bounty on his head. The price had attracted several shinobi, after several easy missions her guard had relaxed but it was her assigned Genin that had paid the price.

The young man had gotten reckless and mistook the enemy as a common bandit; he was currently in the hospital recovering from his injuries. The other Genin had asked to be assigned to a new squad not that she could blame them after everything that had just happened.

She stopped at the room number Hinata had given her and knocked. Five days since he had come in asking about his seeds and it was only the day after she had come back that they arrived. Her mother told her he had come in asking about the seeds once since she had left and had insisted she bring the seeds to him as an apology for the excessive tardiness of his order. The idea of visiting the new mystery guy wasn't her idea of how to spend the afternoon. The door opened as she knocked and she caught the distinctive smell of sawdust emanating from the room.

"Kumo?" she called letting the door swing open revealing the empty room to her. She stepped in and heard the sound of the shower through the bathroom door. She sighed and decided she might as well wait for him to come out and pay for his order. His room was pretty bare bones with hardly any furniture except a chest of drawers, bed, table and chair. The table was a small steel workbench where various tools were laid out along with various pieces of wood and metal laid out taking shape. Next to the table a wood and metal puppet hung from the back by a hook. The puppet was shaped like a man dressed from head to toe in heavy steel lamellar armor with a katana and wakizashi tucked into the belt like a samurai.

A link of bamboo trailed to the floor forming a prehensile tail, as she looked at the puppets unfinished face she recognized the face of a monkey. Various pieces and armor plates were missing from the unfinished puppet and lay scattered on the workbench with the woodworking tools and various weapons to be concealed within the wooden doll.

The sound of running water stopped in the bathroom and a second later the door opened, Kumo clutched a tanto in his hands and lowered it seeing her. A black shirt and pants clung to his wet skin as he eyed her through the dark goggles, she wondered if he had showered with them on but seeing that the leather cap was dry she assumed he removed it to shower.

"So it's you" he said returning the knife to its sheath.

"Uh… yeah" she said holding the bag up, "Your seeds finally came in and I thought I'd deliver them since they took so long to arrive."

"I see" he said nodding and moving to his bed taking his wallet and pulling out the appropriate amount of money to hand to her.

"So you're a puppet user?" she asked him looking again at the unfinished puppet hanging against the wall.

Kumo nodded looking at the mechanical automaton, "Yes… I've been designing a new one to use."

"He doesn't look half bad." She complimented.

"Thank you" he said stepping forward and handing her the money picking up a wooden hand from the table and attaching it to the puppets left hand.

"Is that scorpion you carry on your back a puppet too?" she asked watching him fiddle with the dolls joints testing them and checking the hidden weapons.

"Yes… it was my first one." He continued to fit tiny pieces into the wooden arm. She watched him work for a long while in silence before he spoke up.

"Is something wrong?" he asked not looking away from the puppet.

"N… uh… well yeah." She had been ready to say no but had stopped herself, feeling that she'd accomplish nothing by lying.

"My mission didn't go very well, it was a complete failure and one of my Genin almost got himself killed and now I've lost my squad all because I let my guard down." She explained letting everything out sitting down on the bed feeling rather frustrated.

"Sorry" he said fitting a small metal pin into the puppets wrist.

"It's not your fault" she sighed, "I should be the one who's sorry laying all of this on you, it's not very professional of me."

Kumo turned away from his puppet faced her grapping a screwdriver off the table. "I don't mind, I know how it feels to lose people to lowered defenses."

"What happened to you?" she asked.

He didn't say anything for a while and continued to work on his puppet as if he was thinking of an appropriate response to the question.

"Can you hand me that spool of wire?" he asked pointing to the spool on the table next to his bed. She picked up the wire and walked across the room to him kneeling and down handing it to him. He slipped the spool into the puppets forearm and closing a trap door.

She was about to leave thinking he wasn't going to answer her when we spoke up.

"I trusted people I shouldn't have and others paid the consequences." He explained testing the movements of the puppets fingers.

"That's really vague you know." She said giving him a wry smile.

"Sorry" he apologized, "but it's the most I can say."

"Is that why you hide your face?" she asked hugging her knees to her chest.

"Partially" he said turning away from the puppet finished with the left arm, he leaned against the wall and grabbed his pipe off of his work bench pulling a bag of tobacco from his pocket and packing it into the bowl and lighting it.

"Dose the smoke bother you?" he asked rethinking his decision to have a smoke.

Ino shook her head, "Its fine I'm used to it ever since I met my sensei. He'd smoke three packs a day." Kumo nodded and continued smoking his pipe leaning against the wall.

"Was Nenshō hurt by what happened?" she asked deciding she might as well ask questions while she could.

"Yes" he said letting out a cloud of grey smoke, "He agreed to trust my judgment and took a risk."

"He doesn't seem to blame you for It." she said "Unlike my squad."

They sat together in silence for a while doing just sitting on the floor together the only sound being there breathing and Kumo taking draws off his pipe.

"This little heart to heart hasn't been very reassuring." She said hugging her knee's tighter to herself.

"Sorry, I don't know what I'm supposed to say in situations like this." He explained pulling the ashtray from the table and emptying the ashes of his pipe.

She shook her head and stood up, "That's fine I shouldn't be expecting comfort from people I hardly know. Besides it was enough just to talk about it… thanks for listening."

"Don't mention it." He said standing up setting his pipe on the work bench.

She nodded and headed for the door, "I'll see you around Kumo." With that she left closing the door behind her leaving Kumo to his work.

* * *

Tusnade eyed Kumo and Nenshō from across her desk hands folded in front of her face. "I have a mission for all of you." She explained letting them hang on her words, "Each of you have a B rank that needs to be completed, I was hoping to observe you awhile longer before sending you on anything higher than the D ranks I've been giving you lately but we're short staffed at the moment and D ranks are a waist of your skills." Nenshō smirked at her comment while Kumo folded his arms waiting for her to continue.

"Since we're short staffed I'm assigning you each a single Chūnin to act as your leaders, I know we usually have four man squads for missions but you should be more than qualified for a B rank."

"Enough flattery" chuckled Nenshō, "what's our mission?'

Tusnade shot him an icy stair and didn't bother to speak until Nenshō broke his gaze with her. "Kumo" she started, "A group of rebels have sprung up in the Land of Mountains and have been raiding local villages. We've been hired to locate their base of operations and report on their current movements."

Kumo nodded, "It shall be done,"

"But let me make something very clear" said Tusnade, "you are only to only observe and report the rebels movements and locate their base but you're not to engage them unless attacked, if you are attacked I expect you to retreat and signal for backup you're not allowed to take on the base without the Feudal Lords backing. Understood?"

Kumo nodded, Tusnade turned to the eagerly waiting Nenshō and spoke.

"I have an escort mission for you Nenshō; a merchant has requested to be escorted to the Land of Stone."

Nenshō frowned, "An escort?" he said, "Kumo gets to track rebels through the mountains and I'm expected to watch some business man walk down the road."

Tusnade sighed, "This business man has a million Ryō bounty on his head and was attacked a week ago by unidentified shinobi who managed to hospitalize one of our Genin. So don't let your guard down."

Nenshō smirked, "Why do I get the feeling you're hoping I'll be the next to get hospitalized?" he said chuckling.

"I've never been that lucky." She said with a sigh.

"So why's this guy is got a bounty anyways?" he asked pulling a smoke from his pack.

"One" said Tusnade, "if you light that in here I'll have your guts for garters."

Nenshō sighed sliding the thin cigarette back into the pack, "Why would an old bat like you need garters anyways?" he muttered to himself.

"What was that!?" growled Tusnade a large vein popping from her forehead.

"Nothing" said Nenshō, "But why's this guy have a bounty on his head anyways?"

"He didn't inform us until after words but it seems the bounty was posted by a rival company wanting to monopolize in the Land of Stone."

"Well then I'll be on my guard, who am I assigned to?" he asked.

"Your Chūnin leaders have already been assigned to you." She said, "Send them in."

The door to the Hokage's office opened and in walked in Hinata and Ino Yamanaka. "Hinata Hyūga" said Tusnade "is going to be leading you Nenshō… is that a problem?"

Nenshō shook his head, "That's fine with me those eyes of hers will be helpful."

"Guess that leaves me in charge of you Kumo" said Ino receiving a nod from Kumo.

"You leave tommarow morning" Tusnade finished, "dismissed."

Everyone shuffled quietly out the room except Ino Yamanaka. Tusnade turned to the blond. "Is something wrong Ino?" she asked.

"If I'm going to be working with Kumo then I'm going to need to see his file, I hardly know the guy."

"Do you have some sort of issue with him? Hinata explained to me that you've been asking her about him."

Ino shook her head, "There's nothing wrong personally" she explained, "he's an alright guy if a bit quiet, I just don't feel comfortable working with someone who's abilities I hardly know. I don't even know what he looks like under his mask."

"That never bothered you with Kakashi." She said.

"That was different" Ino argued, "it's fine working with him and the ANBU members I know their qualified for whatever we're going up against… but Kumo's a Genin who I've only known for two weeks now."

Tusnade sighed and opened the drawer on her desk handing her the manila envelope. Ino took it and opened the contents looking at a photo of Kumo staring up at her face still covered with the leather cap and goggles.

"Is this a joke?" he asked dropping the file onto the desk, "this file has more black ink in it than one of Sai's drawings the only things that aren't blacked out are his name and age even his place of birth is blacked out… I though he was born in Konoha."

"As far as your concerned he was born in Konoha" said Tusnade picking up the file, "and don't over exaggerate how much has been blacked out, it says here he's a water type as well as a genjutsu user, he's a designated long range puppet master. And there's a good list of Jutsus he's able to perform including the water clone Jutsu."

"What about his Kekkei Genkais?" asked Ino, "There are two black lines under that section, his parents and teachers are blacked out too."

"Listen Ino Kumo and Nenshō's backgrounds are both on a need to know basis and you don't need to know, everything that's relevant to you is in that file for you two read, for security reasons both of them wish to keep certain information about themselves secret to most people only a handful of people in this village know everything about them."

"What if they choose to divulge this information to me? What then." She asked folding her arms.

"Then that's your choice but they'll have to inform me of this decision to let you into their confidence… is that all?"

Ino turned and sighed, "yeah that's all."


	16. Heading Out

The four of them stood outside the gates of Konoha seeing the sky turn blue with the rising sun. Nenshō laid back on the bench with Hinata his cigarette hanging out the corner of his mouth unlit waiting for their client to arrive. Kumo and Ino waited with them deciding they'd take the first stage of the journey together; Ino's squad was attacked within the border so it was agreed it would be for everyone's benefits it they kept together for as long as possible.

A plump balding man arrived walking stick in hand his baby face smiling at them. "Hello I'm Tomi Koumuru I'm trusting you two to protect me."

Nenshō and Hinata nodded, "You can count on us we'll see you out of the country perfectly safe."

They started out on the road walking it relative silence keeping a slow pace for their elderly client who managed to keep a decent pace with them.

Hardly anyone spoke except for Ino and Hinata who exchanged pleasant amounts of small talk with each other occasionally making attempts to Nenshō and Kumo into the conversation with varying results sometimes managing to get an answer to some question, Nenshō was far more talkative than his comrade and was always willing to join in when asked too.  
After a half a day of walking they reached their crossroads leading in opposite directions. "Guess we part ways here." Said Nenshō dropping his finished cigarette onto the muddy road and stamping it out.

"We should be back to Konoha within the week" said Hinata.

Ino nodded, "We can't say for sure when we'll be back" she said, "but if we're lucky it won't take much longer than two weeks."

Nenshō pulled another smoke form his pack and lit it, "Well we're wasting daylight standing around." he said turning down his stretch of road only to be stopped by Ino grabbing his wrist and stopping him her voice low.

"Listen" she said making sure only he could hear her, "I was in the squad that was attacked when we tried to escort his guy the first time. I already explained this to Hinata but don't let your guard down, especially with that Koumuru guy something's wrong with him and I don't believe his bounty is from some rival company."

Nenshō nodded taking note of how serious her face looked, "I'm assuming this is based off of woman's intuition?"

"You're not a true believer?" she asked folding her arms.

He smirked, "I trust you it's just this guy doesn't seem like the nefarious type to me."

Ino raised a single questioning eyebrow, "And you're familiar with nefarious people?" she asked.

Nenshō chuckled, "Maybe" he said, "but I've been wrong before so I'll take your suspicions to heart."

"Thanks" she said turning to walk with Kumo but he stopped her.

"But listen here" he warned, "That's my comrade you're going to be working with, I think you'd work with him better if you stopped trying to get a look at his face."

"Sorry" she said, "I can't help but be curious."

"Well lose the curiosity, because anything Kumo isn't willing to do in order to protect his secrets I won't hesitate to it do for him."

"Is that a threat?" she asked.

"It's a friendly warning" he said, "Kumo's risked a lot coming to Konoha and I'm not letting anyone ruin that for him."

"I'm not trying to ruin anything for him," she muttered.

"I know" he said, "And that's why I'm warning you to stop prying."

* * *

Ino felt the tiny droplets of moisture fall from the sky and land on her face. She looked up to see the dark clouds over head had begun to rain down on them. She zipped up her heavy jacket and pulled on the hood. After parting ways with Nenshō and Hinata they had managed to pick of their pace a little not needing to worry about an ageing merchants comfort. Although the conversation had taken a quiet turn, Kumo was about as quiet as the grave as usual. Though she had to admit he was the most cooperative teammate she'd had so far. He never complained or protested when she ordered a rest or for them to keep going always quietly taking her orders. They had decided to stop for the night and make camp; Kumo began setting up their tent while she tried to cook a halfway decent meal out of their rations. Kumo removed his jacket and placed it into the tent along with his scorpion puppet; he sat on a rock and tilted his head back to the pouring rain letting the drops run down his face.

"Do you like the rain?" she asked handing him a tin dish of cooked rice and veggies steaming it the cold rain. She was grateful she had managed to finish cooking the food before the rain. Kumo lightly nodded at her question before turning his face away from the sky and eating the food without complaint.

"Sorry if it's not to your liking I don't have much to work with once we find an inn or a town we can buy something more substantial." She explained helping herself to her own serving trying to down it all before it got cold and soaked.

"Your cooking's fine." He said finishing the last bit of rice on his plate.

"Thanks" she said returning to her meal. After they finished their meal they cleaned and packed up their mess kits burying the remains of their fire and retiring to their tent for the night. Kumo pulled a scroll from his jacket.

"What's that?" she asked looking over his shoulder at a map seeing a series of drawn markings and hand written notes.

"Map of the Land of Mountains… I've marked various landmarks I've used before including caves." He explained pointing at a triangle marking the caves.

"What about those swirls?" she asked pointing to one of many spirals on the map.

"Hot Springs" he said, "It's snowing this time of year in the county I'm guessing that these rebels are staying close to them it's a good source of warmth and the steam can be used as cover."

Ino nodded in agreement, "Did you spend a lot of time in the Land of Mountains?" He folded the map and put it back into his jacket pocket and moving to his sleeping pad and covering himself with his blanket.

"A little" he said staring at the ceiling of the tent, "I'm familiar with the wilderness of the area some of the hot springs in the area have inns we can stay at if we camp around during the blizzards we could attract unwanted attention."

"That's a good idea and who can argue staying at a hot spring." She said removing her wet jacket and preparing for bed. Ino lay back on her sleeping pad and listened to the sound of the rain hitting the tent. The noise would probably keep her up all night until she was forced to fall asleep by her own drowsiness. She turned her head and looked at Kumo unsure whether he was asleep or not, the only indications of life he gave was the rise and fall of his chest.

"Are you awake?" she asked him.

A few seconds of silence passed and just when she thought he was asleep he spoke up. "Yes" he said moving over to his side to look at her.

"Why do you like the rain?" she asked trying to see it she could get a conversation flowing.

He didn't answer at first seconds flowed by where he just looked at her or she assumed he was looking at her though the black lenses. She could feel his breath ticking her face.

"It was rare for it to rain during my childhood… its refreshing." He explained.

"So you didn't grow up in Konoha?" she asked, again he hesitated before answering.

"No… I wasn't born in Konoha" he admitted knowing it would do him little good to lie.

"I won't say anything" she promised looking into the dark lenses.

Kumo didn't say anything he just continued to lay there inches from her.

"Why did you leave?" she asked propping her head up on an elbow.

"I can't answer that." He said turning over to go to sleep.

"You can trust me" she said, "Listen I'm not used to my subordinates keeping secrets from me, I don't know you well enough to watch my back. My family's Jutsu leaves my body vulnerable meaning you're going to have to protect it if I ever use it… which I may have to in order to extract information. I don't know what you're afraid of but I'm not going to betray whatever secrets you may have."

Kumo didn't say a thing and pretended to be asleep.


	17. Hot Springs

Nenshō watched the rain fall from his booth at the inn his warm cup of tea steaming in his hands.

"I hope Ino and Kumo didn't get caught in the rain." Said Hinata over her bowl of Miso soup.

Nenshō chuckled, "Knowing Kumo he'd prefer to say out in the rain as opposed to a warm inn, they'll be fine."

After crossing the border they stopped at the local tavern and got their rooms and ordered food for themselves. Nenshō sighed at his hot tea wishing he could have ordered a bottle of sake but he figured it'd be poor judgment to drink when he was supposed to be expecting trouble.

"So…." He said scratching the back of his head, "Tenten say anything about me?"

He'd only seen her once after she had come back from her mission and their time alone had been rather brief considering Guy had been rigorously training him at all hours of the day keeping him exhausted. He had no idea how the girl managed to put up with his almost limitless energy.

Hinata's cheeks turned pink at the question. "I uh… can't answer that." She said picking up the bowl and drinking from it.

"Come on" he said grinning over his tea, "She never mentioned me over a little girl talk?" he teased knowing she'd never admit anything to him.

"She never said anything about me while listening to you talk about the knucklehead."

Hinata blushed deeper and looked up from her soup wondering how he would know. "Did Tenten?" she asked timidly.

"No," said Nenshō, "Kumo's speculation, he's pretty good at reading people with those eyes of his. Considering your reaction looks like he's right on the money. Good thing I didn't bet against him."

She sat across from him shoulders hunched and staring at a rippling puddle outside. Nenshō sighed he felt like he'd just kicked a puppy. He supposed that's what he got for trying to forward about her crush.

"Sorry" he said, "Didn't mean to embarrass you."

She looked at him and nodded turning back to the window. Nenshō ordered some dumplings for them both.

"Dose Naruto know how you feel?" he asked trying to sound sincere handing one of the dumpling sticks to her. She quietly shook her head as she took the stick and munching down.

"I've wanted to tell him" she said, "but I've never been able too, he's had feeling for another girl for as long as I've known him."

He drummed his fingers on the table biting off a dumpling. "So that's what's stopping you?" he asked, "She his girlfriend?" he asked putting the stick down.

She shook her head, "No she's rejected him for a long time, and she's in love with an unattainable man, she's never really appreciated his feelings."

"Sounds to me like you'd be doing him a favor if he's really chasing a hopeless cause." He finished off his tea before continuing. "He'd probably be a lot happier knowing someone likes him instead of thinking he's unwanted."

Tomi walked over to their table from the bar smiling. "I'm going to head up to my room now." He said, he Nenshō had decided to stay in the same room for security reasons and to keep a better eye on him.

"Alright" he said standing from the booth, to follow him upstairs, "Besides" he said reaching the staircase, "what guy wouldn't be happy to have earned your affections."

He ascended the stairs noticing a small smile curing Hinata's lips.

* * *

Snow crouched beneath Ino's feet as she walked up the path behind Kumo who was leading the way up the mountain pass. They rounded the path and Ino looked out to the valley below them. The ground below wasn't visible from all the rising steam in the distance; the swirling white smoke spanned from mountain to mountain filling the valley to the brim of the snowcapped mountains.

"Wow" she said leaning against a tree to rest taking it the view trying to imagine how many hot springs were in the valley to create such a dense smokescreen.

"The inn isn't too car from here." Said Kumo crossing his arms and scanning the mountains in the distance, "Just down the mountain a ways near the closes hot spring."

Ino nodded and got back on the road. The overcast skies hid the sun from view but she knew it would only be a matter of time until it set and the prospect of spending the night at a hot spring was too tempting to be ignored. Their first night in the Land of Mountains had been spent in one of the caves Kumo had marked on his map. The cold limestone had left her shivering the whole night through wishing the wind would stop blowing in snow. She would have never been able to get to sleep if Kumo hadn't given her his blanket hers had gotten soaked while traveling and had to dry. She was also hoping to get some real food to eat as opposed to being forced to eat meager trail rations.

They worked their way down the mountain pass until Kumo led her to a stone path hidden in the steam leading to a small inn.

Ino knocked on the front door and waited until it was opened by a small elderly woman.

"We don't get many visitors this time of year" she said looking at them both puzzled.

"We're traveling to the capital." Ino explained telling a half truth, "My friend here told me about your inn and I was wondering if we could spend a night or two."

A small man put a hand on the old woman's shoulder appearing at her side. "I don't see why not." He said, "It's been a slow winter for us so feel free to come in." Ino nodded and stepped over the threshold Kumo quietly following behind.

"We have a discount one bedroom for you two that will suit you two just fine." The woman said moving behind the counter, Ino felt her cheeks burn.

"Uh… we're not together" she explained, "Two beds should be fine." The woman nodded and handed them their keys.

They went up to their room and dropped off their packs the beds were separated by a sliding paper door. Once they had ridden themselves of their baggage they moved downstairs to get something to eat.

"Good call coming to this place." She complemented as her order of grilled salmon and fried rice the heavenly smell making her stomach roar with anticipation. "Thank you." He said over his bowl of roast duck.

She broke her chopsticks grinning; she hoped they'd never have to go back to sleeping in the caves.

* * *

Ino sighed contently as she lowered herself into the hot spring. The small natural pool was separated by a tall bamboo wall much to her pleasure; she had the hot spring all to herself allowing her to lay back against a bolder letting her sink in to her chin. Her long platinum hair floated around her surrounding her form. She closed her eyes and listened to the sharp beat of the Shishi-odoshi. She felt herself slowly drift when the sound of shifting water brought her attention back to reality. She turned to the direction of the sounds over the other side of the bamboo barrier.

"Is that you Kumo?" she asked swimming over to the divider. "Yes" she heard him mutter from the other side.

"So tell me" she said leaning against the barrier letting her body sink in to her chin again, "Why did you spend so much time the Land of mountains?"

She waited past the pause now used to him taking a second to respond to most of her questions.

"I traveled a lot when I was younger" he said and from the sound of his voice she could tell he was directly behind her separated by the barrier.

"Did you stay here when you were traveling?" she counted the beats of the Shishi-odoshi until he answered her."

"No… I didn't have any money for an inn or a cooked meal." He explained to her. She felt her nose go cold and opened her eyes to see a white snowflake melting on the tip of her nose; she turned her head up to see more tiny flakes drifting down to earth from the sky rippling the surface of the water and disappearing as they melted into the hot water.

"So you what?" she said, "You slept in caves and starved?"

"I slept in caves" he confirmed, "and I hunted for my food."

"Was Nenshō with you then?" she asked turning to face the barrier, she could partially see him through the gaps in the bamboo making out his back seeing various scars here and there something she would expect from an experienced shinobi. She make out the brown skull cap atop his head even in the privacy of the hot springs he wore his brass tinted goggles to hide his face.

"No… I was alone then" he answered.

"Why were you traveling alone?" she whispered leaning closer to the barrier sure he could hear her.

She waited but the answer didn't come, she waited for him to mull over a response but it never came.

"If you're so set to secrecy "she said her voice still low, "then why do you even bother answering any of my questions? I don't think you really want to be wearing that mask all the time, and you're answering my questions with vague responses when you could just stay quiet and not tell me a damn thing."

She waited a minute wondering if her words would provoke some form of response out of him.

"You know what I think?" She whispered her forehead against the bamboo wall directly behind his. "I think you like answering my questions whenever you can; I think it almost feels like taking off that mask a little, I think you secretly want to trust others. Don't you want to trust me?"

She waited but he didn't say anything, he didn't move or make a noise. She turned around and leaned back against the bamboo wall sighing in frustration and crossing her arms over her chest. She looked over to the sides of the pool where the snow was starting to pile up; she feared the short trip from the spring to the changing room she would have to trek in the cold nothing could save her from that.  
"I do want to trust you." She heard him say catching her off guard. He didn't say anything else but she didn't complain a small smile curled her lips just a bit. She sunk back in and let her mind wander here and there listening to the small sounds all around her including the tiniest of noises Kumo made from behind the barrier.

"Ino" he said snapping her out of her drowsy state.

"Yeah?" she said turning to the wall.

"Get out and get dressed" he said, "We're under attack."


	18. Mask Removed

Ino shivered. The cold air sent shivers down her spine and she zipped up the heavy jacket tighter her wet hair clung to her back. She had obeyed Kumo and had dressed herself in the changing room as quickly as she could manage not taking the time to dry herself off much to her frustration. She exited the waiting room to find Kumo waiting for her dressed in his usual grey hooded jacket the scorpion puppet slung across his back. "How do you know we're about to be attacked?" she asked strapping her kunai holster to her thigh. He didn't answer her and moved through the lounge passing by the elderly managers. "Hide" he said to them as he reached the front door opening it letting the wind blow in carrying flakes of snow with it.

"Hide and stay down until we come and get you." He ordered stepping outside into the snow Ino following close behind. He ran outside and took to the trees moving among the branches until he found a good perch close to the stone pathway leading to the Inn.

"Do you have any idea how close they are?" she asked landing beside him and drawing one of her kunai for good measure.

"Theirs twenty and their seventy yards away, their armed." He whispered pulling a scroll from his belt and broke the seal and unrolling it upon the branch biting his finger open and spreading the line of blood upon it. In a puff of smoke the wooden samurai puppet appeared before her completely clad in red and black armor.

"You finished it?" she asked receiving a small not from the puppet master.

"You mentioned being able to perform a body mind transfer Jutsu correct?" he said pulling his steel compound bow from another scroll the mouth of the scorpion and he pulled an arrow notching it to the string.

"I can but I need to have a direct line of sight and even then it's a problem unless their immobilized, I can barely see anything right now it's too dark and the steam doesn't help at all" she said, "You have some kind of plan?"

He nodded, "if I can draw them in closer you can perform this Jutsu and take one of them prisoner and extract whatever information we need from them."

"Didn't Lady Tsunade say we were just to observe the rebels not engage them? If I can get close enough I can take over one of their minds without anyone noticing." She said trying to spot something through the dark fog.

"If we don't engage them" he explained, "Then they'll probably ransack the inn and take whatever they please… I doubt they'd let the inn keepers live and report their presence."

Ino sighed knowing he was right, just two days into the country and they were already defying Tsunade's orders.

"I'll draw them in from a distance once you can make visual contact I'll let the Samurai finish them off and try to immobilize one of them then you can to preform your mind transfer and obtain whatever information you can."

"Alright" she said nodding.

Kumo pulled back on the bows string and let the arrow fly into the darkness, sounds of panic and sounded in the distance apparently the arrow hand found its mark. Kumo notched a few more arrows and let them loose. Ino had wondered how he could manage to see through the dark tinted lenses, it was clear to her now that he could see far better than her. Kumo drew a long knife from his back his fingers fitting around a steel knuckle guard similar to Asuma's knives. He swings the blade deflecting a few stray arrows that moved too close, Ino moved behind a tree feeling the trunk vibrate as the arrows impacted it. The enemy was shooting blind. Screams came from the smoke as Kumo sent the samurai puppet forward blue chakra strings trailing from the end. Ino watched as dark silhouettes came into view attacking the puppet with both swords drawn moving gracefully among the shadows. Cutting down the fruitless attacks. A sword wielder locked blades with the shadow sending a flurry of attacks trying to defend himself and his remaining comrades. Ino moved in closer to preform her Jutsu. The puppet dodged back and the figure pulled an orb from its pocket letting it explode in its hand. Ino covered her mouth as a thick powder filled the air, she reached into her medical bag for her pack for her rebreather but she had already gotten a breath full.

She strapped the mask on but already found herself getting dizzy, the powder was starting to take effect on her body. Her body wobbled and she grabbed for the trunk of the tree, trying to make sure she didn't fall from her perch. Kumo appeared at her side a rebreather strapped to his head completely masking his face. She felt like she had just gone through a night of drinking sake and was about to pass out drunk. Suddenly she found herself falling to the while earth.

* * *

Ino's head felt like it was changing sizes and she wished it would simply pick a size and stick with it. She groaned and sat up clutching her head. She was in her bed of the inn. She looked around the empty dark room and sighed wishing her head didn't hurt so much. She was still dressed in the clothes she had worn when she had gone to face the rebel attackers minus the heavy jacket. She figured she couldn't have been out for very long considering her hair was still wet.

"You should drink" said a voice in the room. She looked over to the open window were Kumo was sitting barely illuminated by the red glow of his lit pipe. The eerie orange light revealed his face and he blew a string of smoke out the open window. He pointed to her nightstand were a glass and pitcher full of water sat, as soon as she saw the glass she realized how dry her throat was. She grabbed the glass and downed it seconds; she then grabbed the pitcher not bothering to fill the glass and emptied it as well.

"What happened?" she panted looking at him tap out the embers letting them fall out the window before closing it.

"That powered you breathed was a unique concoction, it was designed to disorient you, I've administered and antidote but you should be feeling residual effects." He explained tucking the pipe away.

"Sorry about that." She said trying to stand up, wobbling a bit and then sitting back on the bed.

"We weren't supposed to be facing other shinobi" said Kumo, "we were caught off guard but I managed to take care of them."

"Can you help me get to the bathroom…? I need to change out of these clothes." She said. He nodded and moved to help her letting her lean on him as he walked her to the bathroom grabbing her pack along the way and handing it to her as he closed the bathroom door behind her.

"I feel drunk" she groaned looking at herself in the mirror, she looked like a wreck.

"I'm sure you do." He said from the other side of the door.

"How did you identify the poison?" she asked opening her bag.

"It was a simple mixture of fermented herbs infused with chakra, once I identified the herbs I was able to apply my own concoction and dilute the poison."

"I fell down" she said remembering as she pulled on a night shirt over her night shorts.

"I caught you." He corrected her.

She sighed and turned the sink on splashing water on her face. "I'm sorry" she sighed grabbing the towel from her face, "If I'd have been quicker with my mask I wouldn't have passed out… and we'd have been successful."

"Don't worry about it… the important thing is no one was hurt. Our hosts are alive and grateful they seemed to have heard plenty of uncomfortable stories about other people who weren't as fortunate as them. They insisted we stay here for free." He explained.

"That's good, I thought you'd be angry things went sour." She said opening the door and stumbling outside. Kumo caught her and helped her move across the room to her bed. She laid back propping her up against the headboard.

"It's always worse to lose comrades." He said picking up the pitcher and moving to the sink to fill it. He moved back and placed the pitcher down and filled the glass sitting on the side of the bed pulling out a couple tablets from his jacket pocket and handing them to her.

"These should help with the headaches." He said as she took them downing them with the water. He moved to leave but she grabbed his arm.

"Can you stay here?" she mumbled, "Until I fall asleep?"

"I'm just going to be in the other room" he explained being pulled back down to the bed, "You can call me if you need anything."

"I don't know if I can sleep with my head throbbing" she pouted her words slurred slightly, "besides I sleep better with other people around."

He sighed and leaned against the headboard, "Your being troublesome." He said crossing his arms.

"And you're sounding like Shikamaru." She grumbled grabbing her forehead wishing the throbbing would end already.

"Who?" he asked.

"Never mind" she mumbled leaning against him.

"Besides you shouldn't refuse a pretty girl trying to get you into her bed." she giggled turning her head to look at him.

"Do you think I'm pretty?" she asked leaning in and taking his lips, she leaned into him turning his head to face her, and after a few seconds he finally responded moving his lips against hers. She draped her arms over his shoulders and felt his callused hand move across her bare thigh. She pulled back from the kiss but only barely the skins of his lips were clutched in her teeth.

"Did you like that?" she breathed though her teeth not letting his bottom lip release from her grip.

"Yes" he said pulling his lip back before leaning into her again his hand combed through her hair and cradled her head. She shivered as his teeth raked across her lips. Her hands moved up his neck and found the strings to his skull cap.

"No" he said pulling away from her his hand moved from her thigh and pulled her hand away.

"I want to see your face" she whispered, "You said you wanted to trust me."

"I do… but I can't, not yet." he explained.

"What do you have to lose?" she asked taking his left hand into his, she had never noticed but one of the digits of his ring finger was missing.

He didn't say anything and let her hand go and move up his neck to the leather strings. She pulled them undoing the knot. She pulled off the cap the goggles and head plate with it. His eyes were closed dark purple scars outlined his eyes the skin on the other half of his face was slightly pail from the lack of sunlight. His hair was a dark black and cut extremely short. He opened his eyes and she gazed into the silver pupil-less orbs that seemed to glow in the dark.

"You're a Hyūga?" she asked familiar with the white eyes of the Byakugan.

"My father was" he said, "But they can never know… no one can."

She traced the scars with her fingers, "How did you get these?"

"I'll tell you later" he said moving her hand away, "go to sleep."


	19. Kinzoku Clan Emerges

Nenshō stirred the steaming pot of stew trying to make sure he didn't drop any cigarette ash into the pot. Cooking was hardly Nenshō's usual chore when it came to setting up camp. Usually that was Kumo's job he was better at using his herb knowledge to spice up usually meager ingredients and making the meal considerably more heartening. Usually Nenshō handled the fire and tent. Hinata was patrolling the perimeter with her Byakugan. That was one of the routines he had developed with Kumo after escaping prison. Hinata's Byakugan was what he suspected was the reason Tsunade paired him with her having plenty of experience working with its unique capabilities.

Tomi was already fast asleep in the tent bathed in orange light of the setting sun. The old man was certainly slowing them down especially since he insisted they stop to spend the night whenever they could usually making them stop in the middle of the afternoon at the last inn before they lost daylight. The old man was paying for their rooms so it had no real strain on his pocketbook. But he wanted to go home and finally spend more time with Tenten and sleep in his own bed. If he was careful he could maybe go a week without a Guy finding out who he was back and dragging him off to one of his torturous training sessions.

Nenshō smirked to himself. He was actually calling that village home. The last place he had given that title to had been his eight by eight foot sell in the Mist Prison. And he had always been sure to use a cynical undertone when referring to it as such.

A small finger tapped on his shoulder bringing his thoughts back to what he was doing. He turned to see a panting Hinata behind him hands on her knees trying to catch her breath. "Were… were…" she panted.

"Catch your breath." He said dropping the ladle and turning around to face her. She nodded and took a moment to orient herself.

"We're being tracked." She said. "I haven't been able to spot them when we we're staying at the inns but I'm sure I spotted those men last light at the inn and their headed for our position."

Nenshō nodded and picked up his armored hood sliding it over his head and adjusting the strap.

"Any idea who they are?" he asked taking the pot off the fire and dousing the flames.

"They weren't wearing them earlier" explained Hinata, "but they are wearing Hidden Grass head plates."

Nenshō grabbed a fistful of kunai and channeled his chakra through them forming it into a short razor edge sword. "Guess we should handle them before they get too close." He said tilting popping his neck and shoulders.

"What about Tomi?" she asked looking over to the sleeping man it the tent. "We can't leave him alone without protection."

Nenshō groaned forgetting about the old man. "We can't very well take him with us" he explained stabbing the sword into the ground and forming hand signs a burst of flames and a clone appeared beside him.

"My clone can watch over him. We can wait for them to get close enough to ambush. If we stay close we can rush back here if the clone notices anything."

She nodded and took off into the woods Nenshō close behind. The veins around her eyes bulged as she activated her Byakugan. He looked at her eyes, despite knowing Kumo for years he had only seem his Byakugan once without his goggles when they were fleeing the Mist Prions over eight months ago. Hinata stopped on a branch and reached into her kunai holster pulling one of the blades out.

"Are they close?" he asked stopping by her side. Hinata nodded.

"They'll be coming this way soon" she explained, "try to take them alive, I want to know why this man is being hunted?"

Nenshō sighed; he hated taking prisoners it meant having to watch your back when you should be able to relax, also he had to care for their wellbeing and drag them around. He never felt right feeding people that would poison his own food given the opportunity.

"You're in charge but how do you plan to do that?" he asked raising an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Remember when you captured Tenten back in the Land of Waves?" she asked handing him a stack of shuriken.

Nenshō smirked, "yeah I do… rather fondly in fact."

"Infuse your chakra into these and we can use them." She said ignoring Nenshō. "We can get them the same way."

"We'll need to slow them down then." He explained, "It takes a second to shift the metal, I can use my fire Kekkei Genkai to hold them back."

"Do it" she said nodding to him.

Nenshō held his hand out and focused his chakra forming a large ball in his hand while Hinata tossed his shuriken on the ground and into the surrounding tree's.

"Just tell me when." He said seeing her sweat from the intense heat of the fireball. She nodded.

"Now!" she yelled and he hurled the fiery orb into the forest below shifting the flames into a barrier blocking the speeding shinobi. He smiled, too easy. He formed the hand signs and the metal shuriken bent to his will. The pointed ends of the stars shot out and formed into thick metal cables wrapping around the ninja's bodies. Hinata swooped down taking full advantage of the confusion her finger tips glowing blue with chakra. She moved in striking the restrained enemies blocking their chakra points.

"That was easy." Said Nenshō dropping down from the tree's looking at the incapacitated shinobi the metal cables wrapped themselves tighter around their bodies and lashed them to the tree trunks the wall of fire he had formed dissipated at his command. Hinata nodded.

"I guess this is where we ask them questions." He said sighing. Interrogation was another one of Kumo's specialties when they worked together. It's not that he couldn't extract information when needed to, he just hated the long hours and drilling the subject. Patience was something he had only a finite amount of. He wished using the subject as a punching bag would be more effective than it really was but if there was one thing he learned while being beaten in the Mist prison it was that pain could strengthen ones will. Not that his will matter much anyhow, when four of your ribs are broken and several teeth have been pulled its hard to think about anything other than the pain even if he wanted to give them details of his metal manipulation he couldn't remember them over the feeling of his feet being burned. It was counterproductive. Not to mention wasteful even if their methods did work on them he would only be able to tell them he didn't know a thing about the origins of his metal manipulation, talk about time poorly spent.

"Hey" he said stepping up to one of the Ninja lashed to the tree, he tightens the cables. Not enough to hurt him but just tight enough to cause some discomfort and give him a constant reminder of his less than ideal situation.

"Tell us why you've been following us and we can arrange for your relies back to your village." He said trying to sound somewhat diplomatic. The man look away from him staying stone quiet giving him a dose of the silent treatment. This was going to be a pain in his ass.

* * *

Ino scanned the snow covered forest trying to spot any sigh of Kumo. He had gone off to scout ahead with his Byakugan. He had insisted he could cover more ground alone and shorten their effort. They had short range radios for contact but by now he was probably out of range. Not that he was very talkative over it in the first place. He had hardly spoken to her after she had managed to get a look at his Byakugan. He hadn't given her any explanation of his Hyūga blood. He had said he would tell her about it after she had woken up but he'd told her nothing so far. She had argued and tried to pry some answers out of him before falling asleep but it hadn't worked. If he was quiet before this mask came off hew was now as quiet as the grave and completely stone faced. The last two days were spent in almost complete ominous silence. She wondered if this was because she had kissed him. The radio headset in her ear began to buzz with static.

"Ino" Kumo's electronically warped voice called in her ear.

"You find something?" she asked keying the mike.

"Yes" he said, "I'm five clicks southwest from your position I'll wait here for you."

Ino sighed and checked her compass to orient herself and took off into the woods. She had to watch herself in these trees the snow and ice had more than once slipped her up while moving through the trees but it was better and faster than moving though the chest deep snow that covered the ground.

After leaving the inn they had spent their time scanning through the wilderness moving from the direction the raiding party had come from. It didn't take long for her to notice the smoke. She stopped as soon as she spotted+ Kumo perched on a branch.

"So what's going on here why is there smoke?" she asked taking a perch beside him, she noticed him tense a little. He'd been keeping an arms distance from her since that night and it was starting to annoy her. Everything about him was starting to strain her nerves a little. She thought she made a little progress earning his trust and as soon as something happens he retreats back behind his mask. And to make things worse his protective friend was threatening to kill her for doing this very thing. Maybe if she managed to speak to Tenten before he found out she could bring him in line. She thought to herself. It was a poor decision to ignore Nenshō's threat but she just couldn't help but pry and find out the mystery of the quiet guy in the mask.

"A village was attacked." He said pointing off into the smoke, "By the look of it I'd say it was attacked sometime last night." He leapt forward and headed for the village.

The small village was empty with small signs of battle here and there. From all the smoke Ino expected to see most of the building to have been burned down. But the buildings were mostly in tact with only slight damaged. The wood had been partially charted but not completely burned through, the occasional kunai or arrow would be found on the ground or buried in the side of the building. It seemed like an empty village until she saw the bodies. They managed to make it to the center of the village. Ino tried to hold her lunch in when she saw the blackened skeletons piled in the square charred meat clung to the broken and scattered bones. Kumo kneeled and inspected one of the skeletons looking over the damage.

"What could have done this?" she asked looking at a burn mark on a building four long burn marks scarred the side like claw marks. Kumo remained silent and looked over at the claw marks. They walked through the ruins making a headcount of the bodies; most of the burned remains were unarmed or were equipped with poor improvised weapons. The village didn't seem to possess much of a threat to the rebel forces that moved through the valley.

A frozen corpse lay half buried in the snow unburned an axe was buried deep into the corpses gut a charred corpse lay off to the side only partially burned. Kumo grabbed the body and pulled it out of the ice with ease.

"Guess this gives a face to our enemy." She said looking at the large man being dragged out of the snow his gear and clothes completely untouched.

"They just left their comrade's body here?" she said watching as Kumo inspected his body. "They didn't even bother to bury him."

Kumo pulled back the man's shirt exposing his chest, a red and orange dragon was tattooed onto the man's chest. Kumo pulled a kunai from his holster and started to cut the skin around the inked skin.

"What are you doing?" she asked turning away from the gruesome scene.

"The Hokage needs to know about this." He said pulling away the strip of flesh.

"Why?" she asked looking as he rolled the skin up and placed it into a tube, followed by a note. Kumo pricked his finger and brought his hand to the ground to perform a summoning Jutsu.

In a puff of smoke two large red scorpions appeared before them covered in black markings. Kumo lashed the tube to one of the arachnid's backs and let the other clutch the note in its claws.

"Take this to the Hokage" he ordered and the scorpion carrying the note took off into the woods. "Take this to Nenshō… he'll understand."

"Are you going to explain anything to me?" she asked folding her arms watching the scorpion take off in a different direction.

"That dragon is a sign of the Kinzoku clan" he explained, "I never would have guessed they were in this country."

"Kinzoku?" she said, "Isn't that Nenshō's clan name?"

Kumo didn't answer her and began walking back into the town leaving the body behind.

"Wait up!" she yelled, "Listen I thought we agreed you'd start giving me some answers, if any of this involves Nenshō then I need to know. I've put up with your secrets and bullshit too long Kumo if you know anything about who did this I need to know. What happened to you saying you wanted to trust me?"

Kumo opened one of the doors to a building turning to look at her. "I don't have the right to tell you some of these secrets." He explained, "Nenshō's clan is his concern, I can't tell you anything."

"That's bullshit" she growled, "I'm not asking for his life story but I want to know what their capable of and why there in the country. The only life story I've been expecting to hear was yours but you've shut yourself off ever since you kissed me."

"I'm sorry if you were expecting something." He said moving inside of the trashed tea shop, "but I shouldn't have told you anything."

Ino sighed in frustration following him into the shop stepping over a body. "Why?" she huffed, "Because you decided to take a risk with me?" she asked stopping him with a hand on his shoulder, "listen I know you're used to keeping things concealed but don't sulk just because you decided to let your guard down in front of me."

"Sorry" he sighed.

"Stop saying you're sorry already." She yelled, "I'm not looking for apologies damnit I'm looking for the answers you promised me and stop getting defensive when I'm around you. Did that kiss really unnerve you so much?"

Kumo sighed, "Maybe a little." He confessed, "I'm not used to being caught off guard."

"That's kind of obvious" she said, "Now are you going to tell me everything or not."

Kumo sighed, "Fine… I'll tell you everything."


	20. Lost Time

Nenshō tried to suppress his yawn but ultimately failed. The damn things really were contagious as one of the captives had yawned and spread it to him and Hinata. Kumo shifted through the pages of the Bingo book he had confiscated off the Grass Ninja.

"This isn't a normal bingo book" he said, half to the interrogates half to Hinata helping him with the questions. "There aren't just ninja listed in here." He showed Hinata the picture of Tomi along with the million Ryō bounty on his head. He checked the faces crossed off and looked and turned the page to look at a man his face covered in an orange and red dragon tattoo. Nenshō stopped on the image and stepped up to the man he was interrogating.

"Why is this man in your Bingo Book?" he asked turning the image to face the grass ninja, he tightened the cables around the man tighter squeezing a few gasps of pain.

"That's Orenji Kinzoku" the man said, "He's a branch member of the Kinzoku clan."

"I know who he is" growled Nenshō, "I want to know why he's in your book?"

Hinata tapped on his shoulder and he turned to see a large black and red scorpion behind her reaching up to her knees a messenger tube strapped to its back.

"Doku?" he asked stepping forward to the familiar summon.

"You know this creature?" asked Hinata as he opened the messenger scroll up and pulling out a rolled strip of flesh. He unrolled it and beheld the dragon symbol upon it.

He tightened the cords on the ninja again. "Alright" he growled, "Enough word games, who hired your village and what does it have to do with this?" he held the strip of skin out for everyone to see.

"We were hired by the feudal lord of the Land of Mountain's" stammered one of them, "he is trying to end a rebellion in his country and is trying to eliminate the supporters and financers."

"Are you saying Tomi is helping to finance the war?" asked Hinata.

"He's an arms merchant; he has a caravan moving into the country along with members of the Kinzoku clan, their trying to establish their own village in the region."

Nenshō turned to Hinata, "We need to go help Kumo… we've already wasted enough times."

"If this is true" said Hinata, "we need to speak to the Hokage about reinforcements first."

"Fine" he growled, "but we'll need to travel through the night to make up for lost time."

"What we do about them though?" she asked looking at the Grass Ninja still lashed to the trees.

Nenshō flashed his hand signs and released the cables. "You will find your arms dealer a hundred yards to the east of here, feel free to take him in we have no reason to protect him anymore."

* * *

The only real light in the room was the red glow from Kumo's pipe that reflected off his silver eyes. They agreed to stay in the village until they got word back from the Hokage moving away from the specified location he had sent to her. It was clear there was little they could do without reinforcement except continue to scout the area for rebel forces. They agreed to use the ransacked village as a base of operations while they waited for backup to arrive. The empty room attic of the tea house was housing was currently housing them. Kumo was sure Nenshō would come whether or not the Hokage gave him permission. Like he said he had told her everything, or at least answered her questions until she couldn't think of anything and fell asleep. He had talked about his life in Suna with his mother, he told her of his illegitimate farther Hiashi Hyūga and why he was forced to keep his eyes hidden away from the Hyūga clan. He had given details of his life in the wilds before finding his way under the tutelage of the rogue shinobi Zabuza Momochi and his followers. His four years being imprisoned by the Hidden Mist and having to endure their countless brutalities and experiments.

He insisted he keep Nenshō out of the story as much as possible, but he was willing to tell her what he knew about the fire using Kinzoku clan. He had studied up on them after coming to Konoha, the four years in prison had changed many things. The Kinzoku clan had attempted a coup de tat when Garra had become Kazekage the clan had fled the village when their attempt had failed and had been responsible for various terrorist activities for the last three years. The unburied body they had found half burred in the snow was a clan tradition. Having been killed by a simple peasant the clan member was deemed unworthy of a burial and was left to rot away.

Ino shivered and caught sight of her own breath.

"Cold?" he asked her sitting across from her back against the wall. She nodded and he pulled a metal can from the corner and started to pile wood inside lighting the tinder with embers from his pipe bathing the room in a dim yellow light. Ino sat up from her bedroll and moved to her pack pulling out a nutrition bar and sitting next to Kumo the blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

"Can I ask you something?" she said leaning against his shoulder. "It's a bit personal."

"What is it?" he asked tapping the ashes out of his pipe.

"That kiss" she said looking into the can of embers. "It was your first wasn't it?"

"Yeah it was." He said tucking the pipe away in his jacket. Ino smiled and threw a corner of her blanket over his shoulder wrapping them both it in.

"I'm fine" he protested as she leaned against him.

"You're not very romantic are you?" she sighed disregarding his objection.

"I've never given much thought to romance." He admitted looking at her. She felt strange seeing his silver eyes look her over.

"Never?" she asked turning his face to look at him. "What about when you lived in Suna? Didn't you think of settling down back then, when you had a place to settle?"

Kumo shook his head. "I was ten when I was exiled, after that I didn't have much of a life."

"What about now?" she mumbled turning to face him watching his eyes flicker across her face. He remained silent for a long moment but she didn't feel he was trying to avoid the question.

"Are you going to kiss me?" she whispered seeing his gaze trace over her lips.

"I'm thinking about it." He answered.

She held her breath for a second waiting. "And?" she asked.

He brought his face to hers and kissed her his arm hooking around her waist and pulling her into him. She ran her fingers through his hair and pulled back from the kiss smirking.

"Good answer" she whispered tracing the surgical scars around his eyes with her fingers. She moved in to give him another kiss when he stopped her. She listened and the sound of people moving outside broke the moment. Kumo put out the fire while Ino peeked out the window. Armed men marched in formation through the streets carrying torches, pikes and pushing charts of supplies.

"The men from the Kinzoku clan that attacked this village must have been an advance raiding party." Explained Kumo. "Their moving a larger force though this valley."

"Their setting up camp here." Said Ino watching the soldiers unload one of the carts while an officer moved into one of the houses.

Kumo reached into his pouch at his belt and produced a small spool of fine platinum wire. "What's that for?" Ino asked as he attached the spool to his glove pulling the length and attaching the end to one of his tiny mechanical spiders

"This wire has been infused with Nenshō's chakra." He explained pulling on his goggles and cracking the window for the spider puppet to crawl through.

"If he's anywhere within a few miles of if he can sense it. It's not much but it's one way we can track them better than we're doing so far. We should stay here and wait for them to pass us by… stay on your guard."

Ino crossed her arms and sighed. "We just can't have a moment can we?"

"I'll make it up to you later." He said forming a single chakra string and sending the wood and metal spider on its way trailing the almost invisible silver blue wire.

"Are you serious?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"I'm serious." He said turning to face her, rare smile on his face. "I'll make up for lost time."


	21. Backup Arrives

Tsunade looked at them from behind her desk hands folded listening to their report.

"I see." She said. "So that's the situation." She sighed.

"I'd like to leave immediately for the Land of Mountains." Said Nenshō twirling his cigarette in his fingers trying to resist the urge to light the damn thing and inhale it. If he wasn't so sure his intestines would become a set a garters for the old lady in front of him he'd have already broken the rule.

"Denied." She said holding her hand up to silence his protest. "Listen to me you can even smoke that damn thing if it will keep you quiet enough to hear me out." She said cutting him off. Nenshō put the filter to his lips and ignited the end with his finger tip taking in a long draw before exhaling and flinging the ash out the window. "I know you're eager to help your friend and resolve the situation." She explained. "But before I send you two or anyone into a warzone I'm going to need a full squad to send out and right now we're shorthanded, and the people we need should be arriving tomorrow. So take this opportunity to rest up and reequip yourself we can't have anyone going in halfcocked."

Tsunade stopped when the door opened and two shinobi walked it. "Nenshō!" said Tenten rushing through the threshold with Naruto behind her. She tackled in into a hug while he pulled her into a kiss. He rested his hand against the small of her back pressing her into him. She tried to pull away but he kept his hold on her lot letting her escape from him. She gave a little moan half in protest half in delight. Tsunade sighed.

"If you don't let that girl go Nenshō I'll be forced to separate you two for another week." she threatened glaring at the two.

"Welcome back Naruto." Greeted Hinata as he stepped in laughing at Nenshō as he obediently broke the kiss not wanting to invoke the Hokage's wrath.

"Hey Hinata did you just get back from a mission too?" he asked grinning.

"Sort of." Answered Nenshō tossing the cigarette butt out the window.

"What do you mean by sort of?" Asked Tenten watching the smoking cigarette fall to earth.

"If means I'm deploying you four immediately." Said Tsunade. "We have a situation in the Land of Mountains. Kumo and Ino have already been deployed to track and locate a growing rebel force. Hinata and Nenshō were sent on an escort mission, but it seems that the client was involved in arms dealing for the rebels and was conspiring with the Kinzoku clan who seem to be deeply rooted in the rebellion."

"What?" said Tenten turning to Nenshō. "Your clan's involved with this?"

"Yeah." Said Nenshō looking at Tsunade. "That's too much of a coincidence if you ask me. Did you know anything about this?"

A small chuckle sounded from behind the door and Ibiki stepped in. "I told you he'd be smarter to believe in coincidence. I also said he'd react like this."

Nenshō pulled another cigarette from his pack and lit it not caring if Tsunade had a problem with more smoke.

"The counsel wanted me to test your loyalties." She explained staring at the red cherry at the end of his smoke; Ibiki dropped some intelligence files on her desk. "Until recently we were merely observing the Kinzoku's clans activities in the mountains but now we've decided to take a more active role in the Land of Mountains."

"And what?" he asked blowing the smoke over her desk. "You knew that bastard was selling weapons to my clan?"

"We wanted to see how you and Kumo would react to being faced with your former clan." She explained to him.

"You thought I'd try to return to my clan?" he asked his voice heavy with contempt.

"Not exactly" said Ibiki, "When I approved your citizenship my report made some eyebrows rise in the counsel. There were concerns that you and Kumo might go rogue if your clan managed to reveal themselves, which was an inevitability considering the current political situation in the Land of Mountains."

"You were afraid I'd leave to kill my clan." He said flicking the ash off.

"That's right." Said Tsunade. "Under different circumstances wouldn't you have left to hunt them? Ibiki's report stated you harbored violent feeling towards your clan."

Nenshō finished off his smoke and flicked it out the window again. "That depends are you going to stop me now?" he asked.

"I don't see why not. You and Kumo passed by reporting back to me and following protocol." She said. "I'm sending you four to back up Ino and Kumo the mission is the same but the rules of engagement have changed your allowed to engage any rebels you come across. Report back when you've located the bulk force and we can deploy an ANBU team to handle the situation. Is this understood?"

Nenshō smirked. "Perfectly."

* * *

Kumo looked at the discarded organs frozen and buried in the snow. "It looks like they don't have proper supplies. They've been hunting for their food as they move through the countryside. They aren't very good at hiding their field dressings either."

Ino nodded. "Maybe they assumed the snow would bury it for them." She said.

"That's still careless." He said standing and trudging through the snow. They had backtracked the movements of the group that had moved through the village trying to map out their route. They had found the remains of a camp about a half days travel from the village they were staying at. Kumo's message to the Hokage was returned ordering them to do whatever they could from their while they waited for backup to arrive. They stopped in their tracked. A wounded doe stood as still as a tree before them its front leg bleeding. A thick steel wire ensnared the creature, the strong metal line cut through the muscle and peeled away the flesh exposing the bone. The snow around the creature was stained with its blood.

"Looks like they forgot to disarm a trap." He said reaching for the compound bow at his back notching an arrow, he activated his Byakugan and let the arrow loose sending it straight through the creature's heart.

"What are you doing?" she asked as he drew the long trench blade strapped to his back.

"The creature was suffering." He explained cutting the wire and kneeling down next to the creature. "It would have simply died of its wound in the wild and we're short on food anyways."

She looked away as he ran the knife from one end of the deer to the other dressing it to drag back to the village.

"I could have healed it with my medical Jutsu." she offered as he pulled opened the deer to remove the organs.

"I doubt it would have let you get that close. And it would have died if I tried to sedate it, it probably would have died anyways it had lost a lot of blood already. I doubt it would live through even the mildest of my drugs. This is the kindest I can do."

Ino nodded knowing he was right. "How long do you think it will take before its ready to cook?" she asked as he picked the carcass up over his shoulder.

"A couple hours." He said. "I need to finish dressing it and bleeding it."

She nodded, "I'll head back and get things ready, and I'd be nice to eat something decent for a change."

He nodded and she took off into the trees heading for the empty village.

He whipped his arrow down and returned it to his scorpion quiver. He summoned one of his puppets to carry the deer. They had been staying at the village for a few days now. He hoped Nenshō would arrive before the platinum wire was too far away. He had tied sever lengths to various carts and weapons. The wire wasn't much use to Nenshō when he was fighting. The pure metal wasn't enough to do a lot of damage but the wire could carry a massive amount of his chakra allowing him to sense and control it from a much greater distance that any steel wire. The metals purity allowed for him to contain more chakra than almost any other kind of metal, though it was almost impossible to accurately shift any kind of metal without visual contact.

The three and a half years in prison allowed him and Nenshō to learn the complete details of their abilities inside and out. There were few things they didn't understand about one another. The Kinzoku clan was one of the moreprominent discussion topics. He had learned about how his own mother tried to kill him shortly after graduation the academy at the age of ten for simply not showing any signs of their fire palm Kekkei Genkai. They had both spent years being hunted for opposite reasons.

He had been cast out and hunted down for his Byakugan his born ability had been his curse for as long as he could remember. Nenshō had been cast out for an ability they believed he lacked and was allowed to hunted down by his own clan and mother. The Kazekage's rule had been cruel to them both. Zabuza had been their only common point between their histories and even back them they had hardly known each other. They had only trained together and joined each other on jobs during rare occasions. And back then they viewed each other as rivals competing for the approval of their master along with Haku and various others. They were distrusting and secretive suspecting each others every move. They had abandoned their distrust when they stood against the traitors only to wind up in the same prison separated by a long hallway and no communication but the small blue chakra string he sent out and vibrated with his voice to make a small whisper to talk to each other.

Things had changed so much for them, and now they would close another chapter in their lives the Kinzoku clan was no longer tied to a village and he would help his friend put an end to them. It was one of their agreements to each other in prison. They'd kill every one of their demons past and present.

* * *

Ino brushed the wet hair from her eyes as she sliced up the herbs and vegetables they had managed to scavenge from the village along with plants and mushrooms Kumo had scavenged in the forest. While they stayed in the village they unitized everything it could offer that hadn't been stolen or destroyed including the bathhouse attached to another hot spring. Food was scare but Kumo seemed to find plenty of food on his own. He could even find edible plants in the middle of winter. He had explained that mushrooms and other plants could grow if the snow insulated the ground and kept it from freezing and last through the winter. All he had to do was use his Byakugan to look through the snow and find them. It was impressive how much he could utilize the Hyūga Kekkei Genkai in ways she had never seen Hinata or even Neji use before. She wondered how much things could change if he had become a member of the Hyūga clan. She dismissed the thought. If his mother hadn't fled even less would have changed. He'd have become another sealed member like Neji. She had seen the mark upon the Hyūga members before. She had never seen it used but her farther had told her about its ability to inflict massive pain and kill the victim's brain cells. The idea of being branded was a frightening one; she would have done the same if she was in her mother's position. Kumo opened the door two large venison steaks were stacked on a platter.

"Great." She said looking at the red slabs on the platter. "This restraint has a grill we can use for those."

He nodded and moved over to the kitchen. They were changing the building they slept in as a precaution; they had found themselves in a ransacked teahouse tonight. A few minutes later Kumo came back the smell of cooking venison following close behind him.

"Is that my shirt?" he asked noticing she was wearing one of his black undershirts.

"It's comfy." She retorted flashing a smirk. "And besides my clothes are drying so I needed to borrow this."

"That shirts dirty." He observed raising an eyebrow and taking a seat next to her dumping the mushroom slices into the boiling pot. They'd have to boil them several times before they would be safe to eat.

"I know." She giggled. "But aren't I entitled to wear some of my boyfriend's clothes now and then?"

Her hair wasn't bound in its usual ponytail. The platinum locks hung around her shoulders cloaking her back. Kumo reached out and grabbed one of the white-gold locks feeling the silky texture between his fingers.

"I am your girlfriend." She said raising a threatening eyebrow. "Right?"

Kumo gave her a thin smile. "I guess so."

"Good." She said flashing him a smug smirk. "That means I better not catch you looking at any other girls."

"How would you know of I was?" he asked adjusting his dark tinted goggles, picking up a knife and slicing into a mushroom.

Ino turned and amused look to him. "Did you just make a joke?" she asked. Kumo said nothing and continued to chop the mushroom.

She smiled taking his silence as an embarrassed yes. She went back to her work silently working next to him to finish their dinner.

"By the way?" she asked a sinful look in her eye. "Didn't you say you were going to make up for that night we lost?"

"I did." He answered not looking away from the cutting board.

"And?" she said leaning closer to him.

"I meant when we returned to Konoha." He explained looking into her green eyes.

"That could be awhile." She whispered sliding onto his lap.

"I'm a patent guy." He said leaning back in the chair showing no protest to her actions.

"Well I'm not a patent girl." She said leaning in and brushing his lips. Kumo's hands moved to her waist and up her back till he cradled her scalp and pressed her into him deepening the kiss.

"What smells so good?" they heard Naruto's voice ring out. They pulled away from each other and the door opened.

"What happened to you guys?" asked Ino as she saw the haggard looking Hinata and Naruto enter in followed by Tenten and Nenshō.

"Aside from hauling ass here." Explained Naruto collapsing into one of the chairs. "We were forced to spend the night in the snow."

"That must have been difficult." Said Ino. "Kumo's been finding hot springs to say at so we've been able to keep plenty warm. If you want some food Naruto grab some steaks from the butcher shop down the road Kumo caught some dinner and theirs more than enough. Their stored in a salt lined fridge."

"Sounds great." Said Naruto pulling himself from his chair and stepping outside to find the butcher shop.

"Why'd you sleep in the snow?" Kumo asked Nenshō. "You have a copy of that map I made. There were plenty of caves to sleep in."

Nenshō smirked as he lit a smoke. "Guess it slipped my mind." He said. "Bright side I got enjoy sharing body heat. I think Hinata enjoyed it as well. Guess that knucklehead found a use for that hothead of his."

Hinata blushed and Tenten giggled.

"So what's going on with you and the blond? It looks like she ignored my threat." Nenshō whispered low enough for only Kumo to hear.

"What makes you say that?" Kumo asked pulling his pipe from his coat.

"I don't need a Byakugan to spot this." He chucked pulling a long blond strand of Ino's hair off of his jacket. "Or her wearing your shirt." He added.

"So how much does she know, about you?" he asked voice turning serious again.

"Everything." He said striking the match and bringing it to the bowl of his pipe. "I told her everything."

"And you trust her?" he asked. Kumo nodded.

Nenshō crossed his arms. "Well if you trust her then I guess I don't have to kill her." he stood up and stretched. "Besides now that we're here I should get my fill of killing, a whole clans worth at that."


	22. Plan in Place

Nenshō brushed the snow from his shoulder. Three days of tracking the raiding party Kumo had tagged was starting to bear fruit. By their count they estimated the force consisted of two hundred infantry along with fifty archers and twelve officers. And of course twenty shinobi from the Kinzoku clan. An estimated fifth of his clan's force.

"Hey Nenshō." Said Tenten looking at him away, taking her focus away from the hunting party they observed from a distance. These regular forces were completely oblivious it was almost laughable.

"Yeah?" he said watching his breath swirl in the air like smoke.

"I've been wondering." She said pulling a ration bar from her pack and biting into it before handing it to him. "Why do you carry your clan's name if their your enemies? Couldn't you have just taken your father's name?"

Nenshō chuckled. "Well for one I never knew my farther or anything about him." he explained. "So I don't even know what his clan was or if he was even a Shinobi, though I suspect my metal manipulation is from his half." He explained. "If I were to answer you I'd say I kept the Kinzoku name out of spite for my own clan. I don't think anything enrages them to know an outcast like myself still breaths and reminds them of their failure, and their mistake."

"That's a lot of resentment towards your own family." Said Tenten as he bit into the bland ration bar.

"My own mother tried to kill me in my own sleep the night after I graduated the Suna academy because I never managed to awaken my burning palms. Resentment isn't the right word for it."

"What did you do that night?" she asked.

"What do you think I did?" he retorted handing the ration bar back to her.

"You killed your own mother?"

"She wasn't much of a mother." He said trudging through the snow and hoping Kumo had managed to cook something more flavorful than the bar he had just eaten. He never understood how Tenten was able to sustain herself and remain content with the simple rations.

"What about those faces in that bingo book?" She asked looking at the black leather bound cover tucked into his back pocket. "Do you recognize any of them?" she asked.

"A few." He admitted. "Some of my former trainers are in this book and even some close relatives. But trust me, I have no living family aside from you and Kumo, the only other person I cared about died."

"No one else?" she asked raising an eyebrow. "Your master, your friend, and me. What about Guy? He's starting to call you one of his disciples."

"Guy." He said uncorking his canteen. "Is a bane on my existence in the Leaf village. Zabuza may have been a harsh teacher but he never asked me to run a marathon on my hands."

Tenten giggled. "I know how you feel, but believe me he grows on you. Besides he wouldn't bother training you if he didn't like you."

"I think I'd rather have him as an enemy." He grumbled.

"I wouldn't say that." She sighed. "He's a formidable enemy."

"So am I." He said. "And this is my chance to prove it."

….

Kumo traced the lines of the map with his finger ending on a single black dot.

"From their current movements we can assume this village is their next target." He said looking at everyone gathered around.

"Their group is moving slow thought the mountains and being headed by the Shinobi, they should be attacking any day now. The twenty shinobi have already separated from the rest of the force to attack the village. I assume this force is moving to clear a path to the capital while the rest of the forces move in to lay siege to the capital. Or at least that's what I suspect." He explained.

"Makes sense to me." Said Tenten eyeing the map he had drawn out. Naruto was listening over his venison stew while Ino and Hinata nodded. Nenshō was currently filling his own bowl casually listening to Kumo assessment.

"We should attack when they move in on the village." Said Ino observing the map. "They won't be expecting an outside force to strike and the regular force won't be backed up by shinobi. I'd be a good chance to capture those officers and interrogate them."

"What about the village?" Asked Hinata. "We can't just leave them to fend for themselves."

"It will be tough to time." He said "But if we're crafty we can evacuate the village before they strike and possibly thin out their ranks."

"How do you plan to do that?" asked Naruto between bites.

"We'll use your shadow clones." He explained. "It will take a substantial group to evacuate the villagers effectively. Plus numbers will be effective against the forces when they move into the village we can take advantage of your shadow clones to hold them off and thin ranks while we try capturing the officers. Nenshō can back you up he's the expert on his clan's abilities and fighting tactics."

"It's not like I'd settle being anywhere else." Said Nenshō stirring his stew with his spoon.

"Where do you think I should be?" asked Hinata.

Kumo pointed to a ridge a ways away from the village. "Tsunade placed Ino in command of this operation." He explained. "That's why I'm suggesting her and Hinata take up a position away from the fighting. Hinata's Byakugan can assess both operations while Ino can communicate with her telepathy and give us instructions while we work."

"So that leaves you and me to capture the Officers and thin out the regulars." Sighed Tenten. "Twice the work with half the fun."

"I need to watch you play a game of Shogi with Shikamaru sometime." Giggled Ino. "But how are you planning to capture twelve officers while dealing with over two hundred men. That's a lot to handle even if they aren't shinobi."

Kumo nodded and walked to the wall of the cave to his scorpion puppet opening a compartment in its back pulling a red scroll and breaking the seal. He unrolled it outside the mouth of the cave and drew some blood and spreading it on the scroll.

A massive red steel and wood elephant appeared in a puff of smoke dressed in heavy armor. Two steel bladed tusks shone in the moonlight and a tower sat upon the puppets back manned by faceless human sized puppet archers.

"This puppet is designed for capturing numerous enemies and transporting them out of hostile environments. It's called the red war elephant." A series of trap doors opened on the elephant large enough to house people inside of them.

"You built this?" Ino asked in awe of the massive automaton before her.

Kumo shook his head. "No, Lady Chiyo constructed this puppet, it was one of my gifts to her its actually ten puppets in one with the archer, it's a total of twelve puppets."

"Can you control that many puppets?" asked Naruto. "I mean you couldn't control that many of my clones when you used the human puppet Jutsu on me."

Kumo shook his head. "Normally I can only create ten chakra strings." He said pulling out his trench knife lacing his fingers through the knuckle guard. "But this knife is made of a special metal that can channel my chakra." He explained making the guard and blades edge glow blue with chakra. Chakra strings began to form running from the edge and knuckle guard.

"It's similar to Asuma's knives." Observed Ino.

"But wait." Said Tenten. "How can you control the puppet if you can't move your fingers to manipulate them?"

Kumo attached the Chakra strings to the elephant making it lift its front leg off the ground. "I can pull the chakra into my body, shortening and extending the strings at will, I don't need to move my fingers to control my puppets even without the marionette blade."

"Marionette blade?" asked Ino.

"That's what he calls It." explained Nenshō. "He came up with this idea to control more puppets that he would be able to with just his hands. But even with that little invention of his I've never seen him use the War Elephant before. Are you sure you can hand it?"

Kumo nodded.

"Then get into position we've wasted enough time.


	23. Too Easy

"Is everyone out of the village?" Kumo asked Naruto sending the thought eco through everyone's mind. The mental like they had established with Ino was function perfectly with them.

"That's all of them." Said Naruto somehow still managing to be the loudest in the mental link.

"Good work Naruto you're just in time too." Though Hinata for everyone to hear. "The Kinzoku scouts are only half a click from your village. They should be in visual range shortly."

"Naruto, call back your clones for the time being." said Nenshō detaching one of his metal plates shifting the steel into the form of a crossbow steel bolt and all.

"What?! Why?" he shouted in his head.

"You have too many." He explained taking a shooting position by a window overlooking the village entrance. "They're easily spotted and I want to draw them into the village as much as possible. As soon as Hinata tells us they've all entered I want you to make as many as possible. The metal plates on Nenshō's leg shifted making a holster and forming more crossbow bolts. "Try to keep a distance if you can my clan's skilled at close to midrange combat but if you can go hand to hand it's just as well. Plenty of my clan's Jutsus can't be used in close quarters fire burning both ways and all."

"Your palm attacks don't burn your hands?" sounded Tenten.

"The Burning Palm Kekkei Genkai only protects my hands from my own fire; I can still get burned by my own flames if I'm careless." He explained to her. "How are things on your end Tenten?"

"These guys can't even notice an elephant trudging through the forest towards them, literally."

Nenshō chuckled. "Don't let your guard down too much theirs a chance a few shinobi are still with the main force for security."

"If they noticed you they aren't showing it very well." Said Hinata. "They seem oblivious to you two and the puppet. Is your Byakugan active Kumo?"

"No, as long as you're acting as my eyes I'm trying to conserve my chakra; this puppet takes a lot of chakra strings to control it I'm going to need to hold off on using my Byakugan until the fighting starts."

"The enemy is within visual range of you Nenshō." Said Hinata.

Nenshō nodded and realized no one could see him. "Alright, get ready knucklehead and try to herd them into the towns square I have a little surprise for them."

* * *

The crossbow clicked and the bolt flew into the targets throat sending him down in a heap. Nenshō pulled the steel sting of the crossbow back and fitted in another bolt.

"You're doing well." Said Hinata. "You've cleared that section of town."

"Good." He said though the link. He moved out the window and took to the roofs pulling a kunai from his holster. Several of Naruto's clones spotted him and took a flanking position next to him. One of the clones dissipated in a puff of smoke as a kunai struck it. Nenshō deflected another knife as one of his red haired brethren took a perch on the roof. A fiery orb formed in the ninja's hands and shifted itself into a fiery whip snaking around like a living creature. Nenshō tossed his kunai and he dodged he aimed the crossbow and released the lever. The bolt hit the roof as Nenshō's hand formed his own fiery orb. He moved in charging the fellow fire wielder. The remaining Naruto clone rushed in rasengan in hand only to be cut down by the fiery whip giving Nenshō his opening. The man moved to dodge only to trip. The steel bolt Nenshō had fired had shifted and wrapped around his leg pinning him to the roof.

Nenshō shoved the orange and red sphere into the man's belly burning away the layers of armor and searing into flesh.

"You." The man whispered before falling down and rolling down the roof and falling to the streets below.

"Yeah… me." He thought hearing the corpse hit the streets with a thud. Nenshō ducked as another shinobi jumped from the streets swiping at him. Five small fiery orbs glowed at the tips of his fingers that curled into claws. A kunai stuck his back and send him down. Nenshō nodded to newcomer clone that had thrown the blade.

"All the remaining shinobi are in the town square like you asked." said Hinata in his head. "Hurry and spring your trap, I don't know if Naruto's clones can keep them there for very long."

"No need to tell me twice. He said taking a perch on the roof overlooking the town square ablaze full of Kinzoku members in combat with the countless clones. Nenshō smirked and formed the hand signs."

The wooden buildings surrounding the square shook as all the nails shot from the buildings cutting down the fire wielders and shadow clones alike. The metal nails bore into their body's and shifted forming into a metal web entangling the survivors wrapping around their body's and crushing them.

"That was easy." He said watching the screaming men go quiet as their lungs collapsed. He turned his head and watched a stream of smoke rise in the distance illuminated by an orange light.

"How are things on your end Kumo?" he asked.

"Easy." Said Kumo.

* * *

Blood dripped from the steel tusks shining in the moonlight. The sound of the puppet archers bows twanging filled the air with the screams of dying men. Kumo watched the panicking men get cut down in a storm of arrows from his perch on the puppets saddle. Tenten glided through the battlefield below dodging a sword swing from one of the officers before sending an elbow to the back of his head. The man went down and one of the compartments in the elephant opened up. Blue chakra strings sprung forth from the doors hinges and tanged the man pulling him into the puppet before sealing him inside.

"Is that the last one?" asked Tenten jumping up and taking a place beside Kumo on the elephant. He nodded.

"That makes twelve officers." He said holding the blue glowing blade in front of him trailing chakra stings from the end.

The elephant's mechanical trunk lifted up aiming itself forward towards a gathering squad of pike men. The archers atop the tower stopped their firing as the trunk spat forth a cone of fire engulfing the soldiers in red flames.

"I almost feel bad for them." Said Tenten watching the men burn and crumble on the ground.

"It'll be more difficult to fight the rest of the rebels." He explained. "We need to extract that Intel from the officers as soon as possible."

"Feel lucky you have a mind reader with you." Said Ino through the mental link.


	24. Death of the Dragon

"That's them alright. They're in the heart of the valley." Said Kumo spotting the enemy camp in the valley concealed by the steam of the hot springs below. After a through interrogation and mind scan by Kumo and Ino they had managed to clean out any information about the location of the remainder of their forces. They had traveled to the capital and relayed the information to Konoha and waited for further instructions. That led them to where they were today. As Tsunade instructed them they led a small battalion of the Feudal Lord's forces to the valley deep in the country to meet up with a company of deployed ANBU.

"How can you tell?" one of the ANBU leaders asked turning to him.

"He just can." Said Ino for him deflecting the question.

"My lord wants this dealt with as soon as possible." Said the General behind him arms crossed. "I suggest we move in on their encampment when night falls." He said turning his face to the sky as the sun peaked in the horizon.

"I'd advise against that." Said Kumo. "Despite our overwhelming numbers they hold a defensible position and your men are no match for their shinobi." He explained drawing a kunai and drawing a small map of the encampment.

"We're shinobi." Said Nenshō. "We can weaken their defense from the inside and remove the Kinzoku clan as a factor."

"Sneaking into this camp shouldn't be too difficult." The ANBU captain speculated. "Even if we're discovered we can signal the attack to begin and escape in the confusion. We brought flairs and short range radios for communication it shouldn't be difficult to time an attack with you."

"How long would such an operation take and when can your begin?" One of the officers asked.

"We can start the operation a couple hours after midnight, most of the camp will be asleep then and we can move with relative ease. After that I'd estimate ten to twenty minutes within the camp before we have to pull out of there."

"Why twenty minutes?" The general asked.

"How long would your men take to notice a dead body?" retorted Kumo.

"Is twenty minutes enough time to properly dispose of an adequate amount of men?" he asked.

"All I need is five minutes in there." Said Nenshō lighting a cigarette. "Give me twenty and corpses are going to pile high."

* * *

Nenshō pushed the blade into the guards corpse sending him down in a heap as Kumo's swordsman puppet made short work of the others.

"That's the last of the patrols." Said Hinata through their coms. "The west end of the wall is clear for you two." She explained to them. Naturally Kumo already could see that they had removed the guards as a factor but the ANBU members didn't know about his little ability and Hinata was helping to keep them from guessing.

Kumo nodded knowing she could see him. He unslung his bow and notched an arrow with a paper bombs attached to the end firing it at the bamboo wall surrounding the camp. As well as their task of clearing out a barracks of Kinzoku members as they slept they had been assigned to place paper bombs throughout the camp to be detonated before the assault began. Nenshō took to the tree's moving towards the enemy camp.

"There's a guard in front of you just past the wall." said Hinata as he leaped over the bamboo wall. He spotted the guard and plunged the blade down as he landed on the pour soul sending the tip through his chest. He dragged the corpse into the shadows as Kumo covered his rear bow in hand and drawn just in case. He dumped the body in a latrine where few would bother to look. He noticed another body had been hidden in the piss trench. It seemed the ANBU members were already at work.

"You sure you can do all that work on your own?" he whispered to Kumo. Kumo had agreed to set the paper bombs and take care of the barracks for him while he handled personal business.

Kumo nodded and took off keeping to the shadows as Nenshō moved to the tent with the embroidered dragon.

"Nenshō?" inquired Hinata though his com. "Why are you separating from Kumo?"

He pulled the small radio out of his ear and turned it off stuffing it into his pocket. He didn't feel like anyone listening to what he was about to do. He slashed an entrance for himself through the canvas and charged in.

A tall balding man sat in front of a desk and turned upon hearing him enter. Nenshō moved into action. He ducked a fiery palm and stuck with the sword heating the blade with his Kekkei Genkai removing the old man's burning hand. The man reeled back in pain clutching his smoking stump. Nenshō sent a kick into the man's chest knocking the wind from him. Another slash and his remaining hand fell to the floor.

"You dirt." The old man grumbled looking at his stumps his chest heaving from lack of air.

"Keep your pathetic insults." Said Nenshō grabbing the man's collar and throwing him on the floor keeping him pinned to the ground with his boot.

"If you're going to kill me just get it over with boy." He said trying fruitlessly to slip out from under his heel that painfully pressed into his sternum.

"I'm going to get answers from you first grandpa. And I don't have time to interrogate you properly so if I have to I'm willing to force the answers from you and sort through the lies and smaller details later." He growled picking up the helpless man by his shirt.

"If you torture me I'll call for the guards." He threatened.

"My friend has already taken care of the guards and is keeping close eyes both inside and out of this tent. I can do whatever I want inside here."

"So what do you want to know?" he rasped as Nenshō dropped him on the floor. He took a cigarette and touched the end with his finger tip and lit it.

"Tell me everything you know about my farther." He said taking a long draw off the smoke. "Tell me about the origins of my metal manipulation. If anyone knows you do old man."

The man chuckled. "If you wanted answers you should have asked my daughter before you killed her." he grumbled.

"It's hard to ask your mother questions about daddy when she's trying to put a kunai in your throat." He retorted. "And don't think you can make me feel guilty about my actions, it won't change anything."

"Your killing your own kin and you don't feel any guilt." He said accusingly.

"My mother tried to kill her own son without hesitation, it runs in the family. Now tell me what you know old man."

"Forty years ago" the old man began explaining. "A small village in the Land of Iron began learning the ways of the Shinobi. The people of this village were once of an old shinobi clan long forgotten from history legend says they had fled from the Land of Clouds and sealed their Kekkei Genkai for several generations to keep their presence a secret in the foreign country. It took generations before the seal broke and there were able to reclaim their bloodline trait. And by then they were well established in the Land of Iron. But the samurai of the nation didn't desire the creation of a hidden village in their land." He said. "But the Feudal lord backed the creation of the Ninja village and the Samurai feared they would lose their military power within the country to the shinobi as they had in other nations. But because of the feudal lords backing the creation they simply couldn't eliminate them on their own."

"So you did it for them." Said Nenshō, it wasn't a question."

"They paid us quite handsomely for the job even the Kazekage wasn't aware of this action at the time." He explained.

"What about my farther." Nenshō demanded. "Who was he?"

"Your farther had no name." The old man said. "He was but an infant when we attacked the village. We took him from the ashes wishing to conduct an experiment and see if we could breed with him and inherit the ability to manipulate metal. We kept him in captivity until he came of breeding age. He spent most of his life in a wooden cell away from the world. He couldn't even speak when he came of breeding age."

"You're sick." Nenshō growled slamming his fist into the wooden desk cracking the boards.

"Did you expect something different?" the man spat. "Did you think dirt like you could have come from anywhere else? Did you hope for a noble account of your father's life, a story of a powerful shinobi?"

"What happened to him?" Nenshō growled.

"We had no use for him once my daughter gave birth to you, and all this time we thought his bloodline trait had taken away your burning palm. How foolish we were to attempt to kill you."

Nenshō slammed his fist into the old man's face breaking his teeth. "You're wrong" he snarled. "If you'd have let me live I'd have killed you for this." His fist impacted again and the geezer's nose broke. "You called me dirt? Well this dirt's snuffing out the flame of this wretched clan."

Nenshō kicked him and turned to storm out. Kumo stood waiting for him at the tents entrance arms crossed.

"Aren't you going to kill me dirt?" the chieftain asked.

"You're all already dead." Said Nenshō moving off into the night Kumo close behind.

* * *

Kumo pulled on the long chakra string detonating the paper bombs. He and Nenshō watched the explosions go off in the distance and the Feudal lord's forces advance on the camp to wipe it out.

"Thank you for letting me get my closure." Said Nenshō watching the small figures clash with each other the rebels being slowly overwhelmed.

"Was it everything you wanted?" asked Kumo striking a match to light his pipe.

Nenshō shook his head. "Not really, it was kind of pathetic really. I almost wish I'd never done this to begin with."

"Things are never how we expect them to be." Said Kumo blowing a smoke ring.

"Whatever." Chucked Nenshō, "I just want to go home, this part of my life's dead."

He turned to Tenten placing a hand on her shoulder. "Let's all go home."


	25. The Chūnin Exams Begin

"What's this all about?" groaned Nenshō opening the door to Tsunade's office. Kumo and her were already waiting for him sitting patently in the room.

"You certainly took your time getting here." Tsunade commented, he noted the evident tone of irritation. Eight months living in Konoha and he had only once managed to annoy the Hokage to the point of physical violence. He wasn't eager to repeat the experience any time soon.

"I was training with Guy." He explained knowing this would be an adequate excuse for his state of exhaustion as well as his tardiness.

"Well now that your hear I can explain why I've summoned you two." She began. "Due to your impressive service record you two have received special permission to participate in the Chūnin exams."

Nenshō smirked. "About time. Who's our third wheel?" he asked.

"You two have special permission to participate together without a third member." She explained. "Considering all the participating Genin are already in assigned teams of three and we have no single Genin taking the exam."

Nenshō raised an eyebrow, "That knuckle head isn't taking the exam?"

"Naruto's off on a mission with Kakashi and Sakura." Explained Kumo.

"In truth this exam is more of a formality than an actual test of your abilities, the council is in fact eager to promote you both considering your impressive records."

"Of course they are." Bragged Nenshō.

"Of course you are expected to reach and compete in the third round if you're to pass the exam."

"Should be simple enough." Said Kumo. "Is that all? I have a date."

"Yeah we both do." Nenshō added.

"Yes that's all for you both, enjoy your dates. And good luck Kumo." She said dismissing them.

"Why is Kumo the one getting wished luck?" he asked.

"Because he'll be humble about it." sighed Tsunade as they left her office.

* * *

"The Chūnin exams?" inquired Ino after both Kumo and Nenshō had told them about their meeting with the Hokage and their acceptance to take the Chūnin.

"That takes me back." Said Tenten taking a sip of her tea, "It's been almost five years now since we first took it." She admitted.

"How was it?" asked Kumo over his beef miso soup.

"It was difficult the first time. Tenten and I were taken out during a preliminary fight after the second round in the Forest of Death. We had to retake the test a year later." Said Ino.

"Sounds challenging." Said Nenshō pulling a cigarette from his pack. Tenten elbowed his side and pointed to the no smoking sign. He sighed and tucked the smoke behind his ear for later.

"You two should be just fine." Smiled Ino. "I can't imagine a Genin standing a chance against you two. The test is done in three stages."

"And those are?" inquired Kumo.

"A written test, followed by a competition in the Forest of Death. After that's a fighting tournament to further judge the skills of the competitors but it's possible for everyone who makes it into the third round to become a Chūnin at that point."

"What if you and Nenshō end up fighting each other in the third round?" asked Tenten.

"We'd forfeit." They both said in unison.

Both girls raised their eyebrows. "What why?" asked Ino.

"Listen." Explained Nenshō sipping his tea. "If Kumo and I were to truly fight each other we'd have to pull out all of our tricks. It'd be to destructive for one but we'd also showcase all of our Jutsu. We can't reveal all our tricks in a public match."

"That's a shame." Pouted Ino. "It'd be an interesting match to watch. I'd like to see who'd win."

"Well enough about the exams." Said Tenten pulling Nenshō out of the booth. "It's about time we got home."

Kumo and Ino followed them as they paid their bill and walked out into the night. Kumo struck a match and lit his pipe the orange glow of his pipe reflected off his tinted lenses.

"How did you get into the habit of smoking that pipe?" Ino asked watching the smoke swirl from the bowl.

"My mother smoked a pipe. When she died she left me her pipe. So I fell into the habit of smoking it. I lost the pipe when I was captured by the Hidden Mist." He explained pulling a photo from his jacket and handing it to her. Ibiki had allowed him to keep the photograph after his interrogation. As far as he knew it was the only remaining picture of her in existence.

Ino took the photo and looked at the sandy blond staring back at her. A smoking redwood pipe with a bamboo stem was clutched in her hands. "I'm sorry." She said handing the photo back to him.

"It was just a pipe." He said tucking the picture into his jacket again.

"But it was still your mothers, and besides even after four years in that cell you still took up the habit again."

Kumo didn't say anything he just returned his pipe to his mouth and hooked an arm around her waist pulling her figure to him as they walked together.

Ino stopped and turned to face him keeping his arm around her. She plucked the pipe from his mouth and kissed him not caring about the smoke in his mouth. Her hands brushed the back of his neck brushing past the strings of his skullcap and goggles. He could tell she was fighting her desire to remove his mask. "Do you want to spend the night at my place?" he asked breaking this kiss.

"That's really tempting. And you're becoming a better romantic." She confessed placing the pipe back into his mouth. "But you have an exam in the morning and it can be a tough one even if it's a simple written exam. And I don't want to keep you up all night."

"I shouldn't have any trouble with a written exam. I also sleep better with you." He explained brushing her hair from her eyes. Her cheeks burned scarlet.

"You should try flattery more often. It's working well for you." She winked.

"It's not flattery. I'm relaxed when you're around. And I know you hate these goggles. I like knowing I can remove them when I'm alone with you."

"Fine" she surrendered. "But you are not staying up all night with me. If you fail the written exam so dose Nenshō and he'd never let me hear the end of it if I was the cause of your lack of sleep."

"That's fine." He smiled. "Since I doubt he's going to get much sleep with Tenten coming home tonight."

* * *

"So what's this secret training that's got Guy all curious?" Asked Tenten looking up at the stars that managed to shine through the black veil that was the sky.

"You mean the training that has Guy being nosy." Corrected Nenshō blowing a smoke ring up into the night.

"He just wants to help is all." She said leaning against him her hand moving through his messy red hair.

"This isn't something he can really help me with." He said.

"So what is it?" she inquired.

"I've been learning new ways to learn by burning palm." He explained holding his hand out summoning small balls of fire to his fingertips.

"You've learned the dragon claw Jutsu." She remarked remembering the Kinzoku clan's technique. "How'd you learn to do that? I thought you only knew the basics of your clans Kekkei Genkai."

"I did." He confirmed. "But back when were attacked the rebel camp in the Land of Mountains Kumo managed to steal my clans Hidden Scroll and hide it in one of his puppets. I've been studying it with Hinata's help. She's been helping me control my chakra better."

"And here I thought Kumo was trying harder to improve his Taijutsu." She said having noticed her friend's busy schedule.

"Kumo's may be a genius like the rest of the Hyūga's but I doubt he'll ever be anything than above average when it comes to Taijutsu. It's always been his bane."

"How much have you learned from the scroll?" she asked watching the fire in his hand disappear.

"I've learned a lot. But I've hardly managed to master everything it has to offer. I expected my clan's techniques to be lost when they perished. It's fortunate Kumo saved the scroll, I can put my clans Jutsu to good use."

"That should be handy for the Chūnin exam; the contenders don't hold anything back so expect some dirty tricks."

Nenshō chucked and slipped an arm around her waist pulling her to him. "I always expect something nefarious. It isn't fun otherwise."

* * *

Ibiki started the timer and the test began. Nenshō picked up his pencil and opened the written exam. He sighed as he heard the younger Genin around him begin scratching away at their test. He looked over the various questions each one more complex than the last. Tenten had mentioned last night that the written exam was designed to encourage participants to cheat so they could judge their intelligence gathering abilities as well as their intellect and how they worked with their teammate under close observation of the examiners. When he had met Kumo and told him of this he apparently had already devised a method to cheat as well as share any information with him.

Nenshō's pencil twitched in his hand, drawing a black line on his paper and twitching again forming letters. He spotted Kumo sitting across from him three chairs down his finger pointed and a thin chakra string barely visible in the light attached itself to his pencil moving it into the form of answers as he wrote on his own paper. Nenshō smirked; he was controlling his pencil like a puppet while he gathered the answers with his Byakugan. If the other stages of the exam where this easy he'd be a Chūnin in no time.


	26. Trouble at Home

Ibiki watched Kumo through the two way mirror as he grilled the prisoner with questions. After the Chūnin exam the puppet master had been transferred into the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force within the Intelligence Division. I'd only been a few months since he'd been assigned to his command but the kid was showing plenty of talent when it came to interrogation. He certainly showed the patience when it came to working information out a subject. Interrogation was an art Kumo performed well and his skills in capturing prisoners relatively unharmed were almost unmatched.

"So where did you find this man?" he asked turning to the Hyūga by his side.

"Just a few miles within our southern borders." He explained crossing his arms and watching the interrogation intently. Kumo was currently sending a barrage of questions to the invader who was trying to give him the silent treatment.

"It seems the man wont crack he's been stone faced for about an hour now." Said the Hyūga. "I doubt that man will be able to get much out of him."

Ibiki chuckled, "The silent treatment is for amateur." He explained watching a bead of sweat drop from the man's brow. "Counter interrogation usually involves well informed lies or misdirection, it's designed to make the interrogator follow false leads and collect inaccurate information. It can disrupt operations and extent the subject's life if he is to be executed after he has served his usefulness. Believe me that stone face of his will crumble sooner or later. People hiding secrets use the silent treatment because they can't think of any clever lies to throw the interrogator off course."

"So how do you handle the false leads and shift through the lies." He asked watching the victim shift in their restraints.

"You follow the leads and shift through the lies." He answered. "You have to ensure every piece of information lines up with your gathered intelligence and if you can't connect the dots you collect more dots until you can connect them."

"It sounds tenuous." He said amused by the man's attempt to escape as Kumo continued to ask a variety of questions.

Ibiki opened his mouth to answer him when the glass in front of him banged loudly as Kumo was thrown against it his body managing to send a spider web of cracks along its surface. The prisoner had somehow managed to slip himself out of his restraints.

Kumo ducked a punch and slammed the man's sternum with his elbow sending the man back so Kumo had room to turn around and face him. Ibiki cursed, Kumo was hardly an expert in hand to hand combat and Ibiki didn't think this prisoner was out of his territory in a hand to hand fight.

The prisoner dodged a punch and slammed a knee into Kumo's face sending him down. Kumo wasn't armed when he interrogated subjects and right now that was proving to be a liability at the moment. Ibiki and the Hyūga unlocked the room and rushed in. The nameless prisoner turned to face the newcomers charging them. The Hyūga blocked the punch and jabbed his shoulders with his gentle fist technique sending the man down convulsing. Ibiki moved to Kumo lifting him up to face him. The tinted lenses of his goggles were cracked and the brass frames bent. Suddenly the shards of one of the tinted lenses fell out revealing a single white pupil-less eye. Kumo's hand moved to cover it but as Ibiki turned around to look at the Hyūga but he could already tell by the look on the man's face that he had seen Kumo's Byakugan.

The Hyūga turned and ran out of the interrogation room. Kumo hands went for the kunai holster on Ibiki's hip drawing one of the knifes. Ibiki grabbed Kumo's wrist and restrained him.

"Stop," he commanded him keeping him from running after the man. "Making a corpse will just make things worse kid."

"He's going to tell." Hissed Kumo trying to break free of his grasp.

"I know." Said Ibiki, "That's why we need to talk to the Hokage right now."

….

"So that's your situation then?" said Tsunade looking at Ibiki and Kumo from across her desk studying the two.

"Yes Ma'am." Answered Ibiki as Kumo sat quietly by his side listening intently. They both had never seen him more tense. Despite his quiet disposition they could tell Kumo was nervous, he was usually very relaxed as well as quiet but now he was sitting in the chair stiff and ridged as if expecting something to happen at a moment's notice.

Tsunade stood and turned looking out her office window. "The counsel and I always knew this was a possibility with you… I'm sorry Kumo but the elder counsel overruled me on this decision over a year ago." She explained.

"What are you saying?" said Kumo his voice low and dangerous.

"The counsel ruled that it wasn't worth risking dissent from the Hyūga clan especially for just one shinobi, I'm afraid I can't stop them from sealing your Byakugan, it's out of my hands… however… I won't stop you from leaving the village discreetly. Naturally you will be considered a rouge shinobi and I can't do anything about that or the measures that will be enacted to capture you. But I will pretend that I never spoke to you about this and give you a head start."

Kumo stood and walked to one of the windows opening it. "Fine… I'll leave in a couple of hours… just after night fall."

Kumo leapt out the window and across the roof tops.

….

Kumo had managed to seal his puppets into their scrolls faster than he had expected. He packed them up only collecting a few necessary tools and provisions he felt he would need on the road as well as a few personal items, he didn't have many since he hadn't any when he arrived aside from his puppets. He removed his mother's picture from the frame he had placed it in given to him by Hinata on his birthday, he fought his impulse to pack the fame as well but it would be dead weight on the run and he knew sentimentality wasn't the best thing for him at the moment. He grabbed his pipe off the nightstand, not the old one he had gotten after leaving the Mist village prison. This one had a polished wood bowl and a bamboo stem like his mothers. It was given to him by Ino after he had managed to pass the Chūnin exams, like they had discussed He and Nenshō had managed to work to the top of the exam and faced each other in the third round. And like they had promised they both forfeited the match as to not showcase the limit of their abilities. Ino and Tenten both kept reminding them how they with they'd have fought each other and given them a show worth talking about.

Kumo sighed thinking about Ino, he wished he'd bothered to get a photo of her to take with him, now that he thought of it he wished he had bothered to get a photo of Nenshō, Hinata and Tenten. He hadn't bothered with such things during his time in the Hidden Leaf. And now he was leaving this all behind him as nothing more than fading images in his head.

The front door of the apartment opened Kumo drew a kunai and tossed it making Nenshō duck the knife.

"Easy Kumo" he said holding his hands up. "It's just me."

"What do you want?" asked Kumo trying to sound casual.

"Ibiki told me what happened… you don't want to leave the village."

"No" agreed Kumo, "but if you talked to Ibiki you know I don't have a choice in this. Why'd Ibiki speak to you anyways? I was planning on leaving quietly."

"Ibiki isn't happy about losing his star interrogator. He hasn't given up on the idea of turning this around, we want to solve this."

"We can't solve this." Said Kumo his calm controlled voice wavered with hints of anger.

"You're wrong Kumo." Said Nenshō lighting a cigarette and leaning back against the wall. "I've actually been planning in case this happened. Truth be told I was intending to do this ever since I came to the leaf village. And it seems I need to enact this plan."

"What are you suggesting Nenshō?" asked Kumo.

"Do you trust me?"

Kumo nodded.

"Then I want you to go meet Ibiki, he'll keep you safe for now Kumo… the rest just leave with me and if I do things right by tommarow morning this will all be over with."


	27. One More Day

Nenshō escorted Kumo to Ibiki's apartment before heading out; he checked his watch and sighed. He only had several hours to spare before he could enact his plan. He had intended to go forward with it when he first entered into the leaf village, knowing it would be the only way Kumo could live within the village peacefully and without the Hyūga clan looming over him as a constant threat. In truth he would have acted almost as soon as he entered the village if it hadn't been for Tenten. Now he almost wishing he had done it sooner and saved himself the trouble he was going to have to deal with now.

Nenshō stamped out his cigarette and tried to put on his best casual face as he entered into the Yamanaka flower shop.

"Welcome to the Yamanaka flower… oh hello Nenshō." Ino greeted him from behind the shops counter.

"Hey Ino." He greeted her walking up to her and leaning on the counter.

"Getting something for Tenten?" she asked him giving a knowing smirk.

"Yeah" he nodded, "I'll have your best bouquet, spare no expense."

Ino raised an eyebrow. "That's pretty pricy, there some special occasion I don't know about?"

Nenshō chuckled a little. "No I just felt like getting something nice is all."

Ino smiled. "Oh she's a lucky girl." Ino turned around and began arranging the flowers into a bouquet.

"So how have you in Kumo been doing?" he asked trying to pass the time with some small talk.

"Good, as usual." She said wrapping the flowers she had arranged.

"That's good I know he's been busy now that he's working at the Intelligence Division. I haven't seen him that much since he got the job so I was a little worried he might not be giving you the time of day."

"He's been making time, and it helps that he works with my dad there." She explained tying a string around the bouquet.

"Yeah I forgot your dad worked in the Intelligence division as well, I think Kumo mentioned it once. They get along well together?"

She nodded. "Yeah Dad doesn't seem to mind Kumo that much he's actually invited him to have dinner with us plenty of times."

"That's good" he said as she put the bouquet on the counter in front of him. "How much do I owe you?"

"It's on the house." She said leaning against the counter.

"Really?" he said putting his wallet away. "You sure?"

She nodded and gave a little smile. "Just so long as you promise to tell Kumo to spoil me like this now and then."

Nenshō gave her a wry smile. "I'll be sure to do that."

He picked up the flowers and headed for the shops door and turned around. "You know that time I threatened you to stay away from Kumo and to stop trying to see behind his goggles?"

She nodded "Yeah."

"I don't think I've ever said this… but I'm happy you ignored my threat, and I'm glad we became friends."

"So am I." she answered as he rushed out the door.

…

Nenshō slipped into Tenten's apartment through her window. The sound of running water told him she was in the shower. He checked his watch, plenty of time spare for a visit. He set the Bouquet on her bed and took a seat next to it waiting patiently for her to finish her shower. He looked around the familiar room at all the little photos of her and Team Guy the various scrolls and weapons around her place. He picked up a Dao leaning against the wall and felt its weight and sharpness. He bent the swords metal not changing the metals shape but adjusting the balance and giving the blade a flawless edge that only he could give it. The sound of running water stopped and he watched the bathroom door as she came out in a pink bathrobe trailing steam behind her. Her dark chocolate hair was down and was still damp from her shower. He always liked seeing her with her hair down.

"Nenshō!" she cried seeing him and rushing into his awaiting arms.

"Hey babe." He greeted hugging her close to him. She kissed him a gesture he was more than happy to accept. His senses were bombarded between her moist skin, soft lips and combined sent of soap and shampoo. He reached behind him and grabbed the flowers handing them to her. Her face lit up at the sight of them.

"What's the occasion?" she whispered taking the flowers from him.

"No occasion" he explained, "I didn't know I needed an occasion to make my girl feel special."

She squeezed him. "Then how about I make you dinner and make you feel special?" she said a wicked grin on her face.

Nenshō looked outside; the sun had finally finished setting in the west. He shook his head, "Sorry, I have some plans, I don't have time for dinner."

She smiled and undid the knot of her bathrobe letting it open to him. "At least tell me you have time to let me make you feel special." She said kissing his neck.

"I don't know." He said trying to compose himself as he felt her teeth rake against his neck driving him crazy. "That shower of yours took longer than I thought and it's really important."

She didn't say anything to him she just shrugged off the bathrobe and pressed herself into him more. Nenshō cursed himself as he put his arms around him and kissed her forehead.

"I guess I'll make time then."

…..

Nenshō slipped out of Tenten's apartment as quietly as he could manage taking extra care not to wake her as she slept. He checked the time and rejoiced to see that he still had time. He stepped out onto the road catching sight of her as she walked home from training.

"Hey Hinata." He greeted her stepping up to her to walk by her side.

"Oh hello Nenshō how-" she was cut off as she felt herself being stabbed by a needle. Nenshō had stabbed a syringe into her shoulder pumping the clear liquid into her. She tried to punch him but the drug was already taking effect the strike was slow and sluggish he easy blocked it. Managing to empty the syringe into her. Ibiki had lent him the drug and syringe for this, though he hadn't explained his intentions to him.

"I'm sorry Hinata." He whispered as he felt her slumping against him and losing consciousness. "I'm sorry for everything I'm about to do."

He pulled the needle out and gathered her sleeping body up in his arms and walked with her in his arms towards the Hyūga compound.

He stopped just outside the walls to the compound. "Who's there?" one of the guards asked him Byakugan activated.

"My name is Nenshō Kinzoku." He replied, "I found Hinata Hyūga lying unconscious on the road and I'm trying to return her home, I'm a friend of hers."

The guards spoke for a second before opening the gate to let him in. Hiashi Hyūga was there to greet him.

"Thank you for returning my daughter, please come in."


	28. Goodbye

Kumo tapped his pipe letting the ashes fall out the apartment window of Ibiki's apartment. He and Ibiki waited in silence for news of Nenshō's so called plan. It seemed Ibiki knew as little about Nenshō's intentions as he did. After being escorted here he waited with Ibiki in silence smoking to kill the hours. The sky outside was black and moonless the lights shone out the stars so he just stared at the black canvas that covered the heavens. As soon as Kumo emptied the pipe he packed a fresh bowl of tobacco into it lighting it again.

"How much have you smoked?" asked Ibiki sipping some tea he brewed a couple hours ago to pass the time.

"I didn't bother to count." Said Kumo blowing the smoke outside and watching it disappear into the black sky above.

"And how long have you been using your Byakugan to keep a lookout?" he asked handing Kumo some of his cold tea.

Kumo turned to him staring through the goggles. "How did you know I was using it?"

"I didn't" admitted Ibiki, "you just told me."

Kumo didn't say anything and continued to smoke his pipe.

Ibiki sighed. "You should get some rest Kumo. You've been up all night and if you've been using your Byakugan. You need rest."

"I can't sleep… not while this is happening." He said.

Ibiki opened his mouth to protest but was interrupted by a knock at the door. They both drew kunai as Ibiki moved to answer the door. Kumo moved out of view as he cracked the door open. A fox faced ANBU member stood in front of him waiting patiently for him to answer the door.

"It's three in the morning." Said Ibiki, "What do you want?"

"Sorry to disturb you… but the village is being put on high alert. There's been an incident and the Hokage is rallying everyone she can."

"Incident?" asked Ibiki. "What sort of incident?"

"Everyone is on high alert… Hiashi Hyūga's been murdered."

"Murdered?!" said Ibiki

The ANBU nodded. "Yeah and in his own home none the less. According his fellow clan members he was killed by someone named Nenshō Kinzoku."

"I'll report to the Lady Hokage immediately." Ibiki assured him closing the door in his face and turning to speak to Kumo. The room before him was empty and the window was still open.

….

The sun rose in the east greeting Nenshō as he jumped through the trees away from the village. He was making good time all things considered. Despite his exhausted disposition he kept moving swallowing a couple food pills to keep going. He almost wished he had taken his time and got some sleep with Tenten when he had the chance. But if he did that he'd have missed his chance to catch Hinata, and if he hadn't used her he wasn't sure he'd have been able to kill Hiashi the way he had if it wasn't for that. Once he had returned his drugged daughter to him the man was all too willing to get close to him. Nenshō had arrived expecting a formal encounter; in truth he wasn't sure he was going to survive past tonight. He was grateful he hardly had to throw a kunai. After he had one of his underlings take the unconscious Hinata from him he moved close to shake his hand and it was all Nenshō needed to send a hot metal spike through the man's chest. After he was sure his heart was both pierced and roasted until well done he ran as fast as he possibly could outrunning the Hyūga guards as best he could only slowing a little when he was more than sure he had left them in the dust.

He stopped when a faint whistle sounded in the air above him and three thick shafted arrows hit the ground burying themselves in the ground the ends trailing blue chakra strings. The arrows shifted themselves into small four legged stick puppets with tiny bladed arms. The tiny puppets reminded him of little wooden pray mantissas. He had never seen any such puppets before in his life. Though he had no doubt who had crafted the artistic weapons.

The insect like dolls lunged at him slashing with their bladed arms and pointed legs. Nenshō focused his chakra into his hands summoning a fiery disk like a shield. He blocked the wooden dolls with the flaming shield turning the puppets to ash. He quickly disposed of them and shifted one of his armor plates into a long blade spinning around to the block the katana's of the samurai puppet Kumo had sent in behind him while he was distracted by the insects. He moved to swipe at puppet with his orange fire shield but the puppet shifted one of its swords into his path forcing to abandon the move unless he risk losing his arm.

He withdrew from the puppet but realized he sprung a trap. A small flash of steel shone in the morning sun, and he extended a metal spike off his armor forking the end to catch the steel wire that would have ensnared him. He poured his chakra in through the spike and into the steel wire that had been laid out absorbing it into his metal armor. He blocked another slash from the samurai puppet charging his makeshift blade with his chakra pouring it into the puppets katana. He dropped his sword and flashed his hand signs taking control of the blade warping it and snaking it around the puppets body constricting it.

He sighed hearing the footsteps behind him he turned around to face Kumo his bow in hand though the string wasn't drawn back.

"Why are you trying to stop me Kumo?" he asked returning the blade back into his steel armor. "I trust you know by now I can't return."

"Damn you!" Growled Kumo. "You said you'd fix this not trade places with me."

"Like I said Kumo I've been planning this for years, I knew if I killed Hiashi I could free you. Since his only other daughter is too young to take his place as head of the Clan than that job can only be filled by Hinata. And I know she won't hunt you for simple circumstances of your birth."

Kumo clenched his fists his frame shook with emotion. "You're going to be hunted for the rest of your life Nenshō… I didn't ask for you to do this for me!"

Nenshō stepped forward placing a hand on his shoulder. "You didn't have to Kumo; I'd have died in your place if that's what needed to happen. But now it's too late to change a thing."

Kumo looked at the ground. "I know… it's just… I needed to say goodbye… and to give you this." Kumo handed him a small photograph. He looked down and saw and image of Tenten smiling up at him. The photo had been taken out of a frame he had on the nightstand in his apartment. Since Ibiki had told him what had happened during that interrogation he hadn't really bothered to stop at his apartment to grab anything. He simply felt like the clothes on his back would be enough.

"How'd you know?" he asked taking the photograph.

"I just had a feeling you wouldn't bother to pack." He answered.

Nenshō sighed as he looked into the pictures brown eyes. "She's going to be so pissed when she learns I'm gone." He said tucking the photo into his back pocket.

"I think she'll be more sad that angry." Explained Kumo crossing his arms.

Nenshō nodded, "None the less, they'll be hell to pay with that girl. And I won't be around to deal with it."

"I'll take care of her for you." Said Kumo.

"Be sure and take care of Hinata as well she's going to have her hands full keeping her clan in like along with trying to capture and kill me. And tell her to keep trying with that knuckle head he can't keep overlooking her forever. I mean even Naruto isn't that stupid."

"You got it" said Kumo

They clasped hands. "It's probably better if I don't tell you where I'm going Kumo… it's kind of strange… we grew up in the same village as completely different people and we didn't even know each other. It wasn't until we both ran from our homes that we met each other and became friends… tell me Kumo. If we stayed in Suna… it we weren't forced out of our homes… do you think we still would have ended up as friends?"

Kumo shook his head. "No… I don't think I could've become your friends if anything in our lives changed. If you stayed and Suna you would have become just another pawn of your Clan and I would have become another face among thousands… in truth I'm happy for the misfortunes that plagued us. They brought us to where we are now and I can't think of anything I would trade that for Nenshō."

Nenshō nodded and clasped his hand. "Your right… I can say I regret anything that's happened to me… not if it would mean losing any of this."

"And now you're leaving it all behind." Mumbled Kumo.

"Yes… but only so you don't have to. Don't forget you wanted to become a part of a village not me… I would have done this a year ago if it hadn't been for …"

"Tenten?" Kumo finished for him and Nenshō nodded.

"I was hoping it wouldn't come to this… I thought maybe we could both live here in peace. But when Ibiki told me that Hyūga saw your eyes I knew I'd have to end my live here and leave it all behind… goodbye Kumo and before I leave or forget Ino wanted me to tell you to spoil her now and then and I mean it Kumo… keep her close she's good for you."

Kumo nodded, "Goodbye my friend."

Nenshō leapt forward towards the rising sun Kumo watched him disappear into the red and orange light.


	29. Epilogue

It had taken Kumo almost all day to return to the Village in his tired state. The sun was setting in the west when he had finally managed to return to his apartment. He closed the door behind him and stripped off his jacket hanging it by the door. The shoulder was damp with tears from Tenten crying into his shoulder after he gave her the news about Nenshō. He explained everything to her. The incident with the prisoner, his secret revealed to the Hyūga's, and Nenshō's reasoning for killing Hiashi to save him.

It had taken awhile to calm her down but he eventually managed to wipe her tears away. She didn't seem to be too angry once he had explained how Nenshō was trying to help him. But time would only tell.

A knock came at the door. "It's me." It was Ino's voice. "Can I come in?" she said.

"The door's unlocked." Said Kumo not moving off his bed. Ino opened the door and stepped in hanging up her coat and moving to sit beside him.

"I talked to Tenten." She explained. "She's a little shook up but she said you explained everything to her… how are you doing?"

Kumo shrugged. "As well as I can be." He said lighting his pipe and drawing in the smoke.

"Listen Kumo… don't take this the wrong way… but I'm happy Nenshō did what he did… If you had to leave like you were going too… well I don't know if I'd have been able to take it as well as Tenten. I know I'm sounding selfish but I glad you didn't have to leave."

She put her arms around him squeezing him. "I wish I could thank him right now… you don't have to wear those goggles anymore. Hinata has already been appointed to head of her clan and she's outlawed the curse seal as her fist decree."

Ino grabbed the draw strings of his skullcap pulling them back and letting the leather cap and brass goggles fall away from his face. "Come outside." She said taking his hand and leading him to the balcony facing the setting sun. He looked over the village bathed in a golden light he had never witnessed before though the tinted lenses or his Byakugan.

"You've never been able to look at the village like this before now." Said Ino. "And now… because of Nenshō… you can see your home. Not through a Byakugan or through tinted glass but just see it as it really is and not be afraid."

Kumo smiled and turned to see the color of the sun setting over Konoha for the first time. He reached over and took Ino's hand.

….

No stars shone over the Land of Waves tonight. Nenshō was hardly surprised it was raining after spending over six months in this county. He ignored the water washing over him and trudged through the muddy road. He knew there were worse things ahead than simple wet clothes and muddy boots. He was easily able to ignore the cold and keep moving. He had entered the country an hour ago and he planned to be out of it in another hour. It wasn't the best idea coming here; The Land of Waves was almost one of the places the Leaf and the Mist would look for him. But he needed to come here even if it just took a moment of his time. He turned off the road and took the narrow path through the woods, it was a poorly kept and traveled path bit it had become all too familiar to him and Kumo when they were in the country. The trees separated forming into the clearing where the wooden headstone and sword waited for him.

"It's been awhile." He said to the grave. "It's been a little over a year since we returned your sword to you Zabuza… and I don't think even you would believe how much stronger I've gotten since then, how much things have changed since then."

Nenshō stepped forward and tentatively touched the swords hilt slowly wrapping his fingers around the wet and rusted hilt. "But despite that Zabuza… I still don't know if I've earned the right to wield this blade. But I've come to a crossroads and right now I think the only way to tell if I've earned this blade is to take it and see for myself… and if I haven't earned it then I'll keep working till none may wield it but me."

Nenshō tightened his grip on the blade and pulled it from the soaked earth. He smirked to himself, the blade seemed lighter than before.

The End


End file.
